I Need You Tonight
by Konoha's White Fang
Summary: KakaSaku, sequel to Kakashi's Blood Line Limit. Love can only be truly appreciated when you're on the verge of losing the one you love.
1. Somewhere

**I Need You Tonight**

**-**

**Chapter I**

**Song: Somewhere by Within Temptation.**

* * *

Falling leaves decorated the space between each tree and shone brightly with a color of green after being hit by the powerful sun. The trees shook slightly as a blur of orange tapped on each branch ever so gracefully. A figure's headband reflected the sun's rays to show the leaf village's symbol.

The figure that took the color of yellow combined with orange decided to continue running on the grassy ground. Until he stopped to a halt upon reaching the large gates that protected Konoha. His face crinkled to reveal that he's grinning from the bottom of his heart.

The light whiskers that marked his cheeks introduced their owner. The young man's blue eyes crinkled in happiness when he saw his two best friends, his two old teammates, team 7. He waved enthusiastically at the two standing figures then ran towards them as fast as he could, never believing the fact that he's finally home after a long-termed mission.

"Welcome back, Naruto," a woman in her twenty-one greeted the grinning man before her, whom couldn't stop rubbing the back of his head nervously with a sheepish smile decorating his face. "Good to see you again, Sakura-chan," the man called Naruto replied back.

"And you too, teme," Naruto said bitterly to the man standing next to the pink-haired woman.

"Hm," was the only thing the raven-haired man uttered. But the fact that his eyes showed the slight emotion of welcoming, brushed his little comment away.

"Idiot."

"What?! Sasuke-teme!" Naruto quickly jumped into a fighting stance, ready to beat his old teammate up and make him regret ever calling him that. The Uchiha heir took his stance too, already a smirk starting to tug at the corners of his lips.

"You two never change." Were the words that warned the two-ready-to-fight from the wrath of the pink-haired kunoichi. From their past experiences the moment those words left her mouth, they would know that they were in a very deep trouble. As they could still remember what happened the first time she said them and they didn't pay her any attention.

Naruto was thrown into the wall and lost his consciousness while Sasuke whom was very confident that Sakura would never hurt him, got the beating of his life for his overly-confident attitude. It seemed that Sakura had stopped thinking about the Uchiha prodigy in the love way and instead portrayed him as her brother, just like Naruto.

The two ninjas immediately returned to their normal stances. Naruto with an apologetic look on his face while Sasuke refrained from looking at them and decided to turn his back. "Ano, Sakura-chan we're really sorry, please don't get mad," Naruto pleaded with a puppy look on his face.

The pink-haired medic smiled softly at him and waved her hand to show that she wasn't mad and wouldn't punch him or do anything to him. "Let's get going, shall we?" Sakura said as she started walking ahead of the two men.

"To Baa-chan's office!" Naruto raised his hand enthusiastically and ran to catch up to his pink-haired friend. While Sasuke muttered. "Idiot." Under his breath and followed the two to the Hokage Tower in order to submit Naruto's report before the blonde Godaime got angry.

The trio of the former team 7 walked side by side into the village with the sun shining upon them, oblivious of what's awaiting them. It's been five years now since their sensei's "death". And although it was a long time ago, they still couldn't get used to it, especially Sakura and Naruto who saw their sensei's death with their own eyes.

Since that day, the two started training harder and became more determined to bring Sasuke back and so they did. It was a hard thing to achieve but with Naruto's never-give-up attitude and Sakura's brute strength and intelligence, they were able to do it.

When they told Sasuke about the death of the infamous copy ninja, they were surprised to see the always-cold Uchiha show some emotions in his onyx eyes. It appeared that the bad news affected him and wounded him deeply, it was a hard blow, harder than anticipated. But to say the least, Sasuke was glad that he's the one who killed the copy ninja's killer and was able to avenge him.

And so they were twenty-one years old. A team that contained friends and comrades who learned the toughest lesson in life; eventually, everyone was going to hear the song of death.

"Baa-chan! I'm back!" Naruto grinned, rushing into Tsunade's office while Sasuke and Sakura followed him. The bubble-gum-haired woman smiled warmly at Naruto's back as she noticed how much he had grown over the years.

"I take that as another success for you Naruto." The blonde Hokage smiled at the man before he nodded at her with his silly grin still plastered on his face. "Good, then I'll be expecting a report from you," she told him.

"No need to expect anything, I have already finished the report!" Naruto proudly announced as he pulled a scroll out of his pocket. Handing the report to the Godaime, Naruto's grin only widened as he noticed how shocked Tsunade was.

"You took the liberty to write your report during the mission? Very impressive Naruto," Tsunade congratulated him, her almond eyes glittering with pride.

"Sure." Naruto rubbed the back of his head while smiling sadly. "We should be visiting Kakashi-sensei." His eyes dropped as his smile faltered into a tight line.

_Lost in the darkness, hoping for a sign_

_Instead there is only silence,_

_Can't you hear my screams?_

_Never stop hoping,_

_Need to know where you are_

_But one thing's for sure,_

_You're always in my heart_

Sakura stared sadly at her teammate as the memories of that day flowed through her, forcing her to remember the salty taste of her tears when she saw her sensei's form falling and disappearing through the darkness of the cliff. She bowed her head in regret, every time she would remember that day, she would blame herself for everything that happened.

The pink-haired woman could feel hot tears stinging the back of her eyes but she pushed them back stubbornly. She forbid herself from crying in front of others and she had to try and keep that promise. Pulling herself together, she forced herself to look at her Shishou.

Though, Sasuke's reaction didn't escape Sakura's eyes. She saw with the corner of her eye how his shoulders slumped a little in defeat after hearing about Kakashi's death again. It still held that much impact on them even after all that time.

_I'll find you somewhere_

_I'll keep on trying until my dying day_

_I just need to know whatever has happened,_

_The truth will free my soul_

She remembered how they used to go out on missions together when Sasuke was still with them and how they all did their best and got stronger when Sasuke left in order to bring him back, She relived in those memories. She missed them so much that she even wished to return back in time just to know that her sensei didn't die because of her.

Guilt burdened her and it felt heavy on her chest that she wanted to scream and ask for forgiveness from everyone in the village, but she knew that it wouldn't help her in atoning for her weakness. It would just prove that she's still weak and that she didn't get over the fact, that her sensei was long gone with no coming back.

"Has it really been five years?" Naruto suddenly asked, his sparkling blue eyes shifted to look at Tsunade whom had her mouth covered by her folded hands in front of her.

_Lost in the darkness, try to find your way home_

_I want to embrace you and never let you go_

_Almost hope you're in heaven so no one can hurt your soul_

_Living in agony 'cause I just do not know_

_Where you are_

"It's hard to think that it's really been that long when the wounds are still fresh." Tsunade tried to consult him. "But sulking around won't do anything! So you better get your old self back!" She frowned at them. "Death is part of being a ninja so get used to it," she ordered them with her strict voice.

"I guess you're right. Well...see you later." The blond man sighed heavily then waved his hand behind his shoulder as he passed by his other teammates. A look of grief still painting his face.

"We should be going too, Tsunade-sama." Sakura bowed politely before following Naruto outside the door with Sasuke on her trail.

The pink-haired medic's eyes softened when she saw Naruto leaning against the wall next to the Hokage's door. She felt pity for him; it really saddened her all the more when she saw her friend looking all grim like that.

She approached him with a steady pace and placed her hand gently on his shoulder. He abruptly looked at her, not noticing that she was by his side. He was too caught up with his own thoughts to sense anything around him. Mentally, Naruto couldn't stop blaming himself for what had happened.

_I'll find you somewhere_

_I'll keep on trying until my dying day_

_I just need to know whatever has happened,_

_The truth will free my soul_

"Let's just get going." Sasuke snapped the two back to reality with his cold impassive tone. The raven-haired man led the way to the memorial stone where the name of their dear sensei was engraved in the black marble.

The two nodded then ran to catch up to their friend. They walked behind him, trying to give him some space. They both felt that their teammate was bottling everything inside again; he was hiding inside his shell, keeping everything to himself and not sharing how he actually felt.

Sasuke felt for the first time since he killed his brother various feelings; hurt, sadness, confusion and most of all irritation and hatred. He couldn't think of a time that he could hate his brother more than now. His so-called-brother took away everything from him; everything that was held precious to him was brutally snatched away from him.

He grit his teeth, his fists clinched inside his pockets as he only focused on the road before him. His inner fight with his emotions completely took over his senses that he didn't even hear Naruto calling him until he was rudely snapped out of his thoughts.

"What did you do that for, dobe?!" Sasuke snarled at the blond man.

"You wouldn't answer me, teme!" Naruto shot back just as harshly.

The Uchiha heir turned his face away from the Jinchuuriki as he grunted an "Idiot." Before shifting his eyes to find that they reached the black marble stone. He studied it from a far not daring to step closer to it. He feared that the stone would remind him of everything that happened because of him and he was afraid to feel that kind of guilt, therefore, he decided to pay his respects to the man whom taught him the Chidori from a distance.

_Wherever you are, I won't stop searching_

_Whatever it takes, need to know_

Sakura neared the stone a little too hesitantly; she still feared looking at his name among all the other names. Every time, she would see his name in that place, it would usher her to cry because it would emphasize the fact that they were no longer a four-man cell, but a three-man cell.

She knelt in front of the stone, running her fingers over the different names until they came to a halt, brushing over his name while reliving in all their past memories. When a hand touched her shoulder, she looked up to find Naruto smiling apologetically at her.

"I'm sorry Sakura-chan, it's all my fault." He turned to look at the stone with a firm gaze.

"No, it's not, Naruto. It's my fault. Sensei wouldn't be dead now if he didn't push me out of the way that day," she whispered softly while running her soft fingers absentmindedly over his name again. A tear escaped her eye unnoticed until she felt her cheek wet.

_I'll find you somewhere_

_I'll keep on trying until my dying day_

_I just need to know whatever has happened,_

_The truth will free my soul_

She wiped the tear away with the back of her hand then stood up, a smile gracing her features. "Let's go Naruto." She smiled softly at him and he returned her smile with one of his own.

"Oi, Sasuke-teme! We're going to get ramen, come on!" Naruto yelled while waving his hand in the air to catch Sasuke's attention.

The raven-haired man grumbled something about. "An idiot that can't get enough of ramen." As he walked behind them.

_

* * *

_

Am I followed?

A man panted heavily as he hid behind a tree trunk. His keen eyes observing his surroundings, looking for any signs of danger. His head hung low as he tried to take a deep breath. Suddenly, he heard a rustle in the trees and was soon followed by the sound of cracking branches.

His heart pounded like a hammer against his chest. He was in no condition to be able to fight anyone right now. His legs ached from all the running he'd done over the past few days. He didn't take a rest just to make sure that he wasn't followed, yet there he was being pursued by someone he didn't even want to think about.

Over the long years, he didn't taste the feeling of security or rest. He would always be on alert and it tired him. Even for him, it was such a feat to stay alive after all the things he had undergone. Pain shot through his head, forcing him to fall off the tree branch he was standing on.

He gripped his head and tried to suppress a moan of pain and was able to do so successfully.

_Move... _

He ordered his aching body to move as one hand gripped his head while the other used the trees he passed as a support to help him walk.

Unable to take the pain any longer, he leaned against a the trunk of the tree to take a break until the throbbing pain in his head stopped. He stared up at the sky, remembering his village, the feeling of nostalgia washed over him when he remembered how he would sit on a tree branch and read his favorite book.

Upon hearing the nearing steps of his pursuer, he forced himself off the ground and started running again in the same direction he used to take when returning from a mission back in the old days. Urging his legs to move faster, he could feel his pursuer closing in on him.

The wounds he suffered from the various fights he'd been through didn't make things any easier. Blood drops trailed behind him, exposing where he's going.

Kakashi ran faster as one hand gripped his side while the other moved the branches and leaves away. The white-haired man was shirtless, as he used his shirt to create a temporary bandage for his side wound. He was bruised all over. His mask somehow was still in its place due to the fact that he used a little part of his shirt to make one.

He glanced back to see if he was still being followed and unfortunately, the pursuer was quite persistent and wouldn't let him go. Kakashi calculated the distance between him and Konoha and found that he only had a few miles to cover before reaching it.

Gathering the little chakra he had left, he let it surge around his feet to increase his speed. A few minutes later, he could see the gate of Konoha nearing and he couldn't help but to feel the overwhelming feeling of happiness and relief.

The white-haired man ran with everything he had towards the open Gate. The moment he was about to enter the gate, he felt something sting his neck before he started feeling a little dizzy and his pace slowed.

_No, I'm_ _almost there!_

He could feel his vision blurring and his legs giving up on him but he continued with the little energy he had left. His bloody hands gripped the gate, leaning against it. Before blackness took over him, he could make out the familiar voices of Kotetsu and Izumo. With a small smile, he welcomed the darkness that enveloped him.

* * *

Sakura walked in silence, passing civilians and ninjas without paying them any attention. She was lost in her own thoughts, thinking about the day that changed her and Naruto's life and pushed them to get stronger all the more.

She still felt sad, every time she would let her mind drift to her former sensei, tears would unconsciously well up in her eyes and she would hastily wipe them away before anyone noticed her tears.

She still couldn't comprehend the loss of her sensei.

_Now I know how Ino felt when Asuma-sensei died_.

A bitter smile tugged at the corner of her lips.

The pink-haired kunoichi sighed heavily while shaking the previous thoughts out of her mind. After paying their respect to their sensei, Sasuke excused himself saying that he had better things to do than walk around the village aimlessly.

Soon after, Naruto followed the Uchiha heir and challenged him into a fight. Of course, Sasuke wouldn't reject a chance to beat the hell out of the blond shinobi so he agreed without much of a thought.

So Sakura was left alone with nothing to do therefore she decided to go to the Godaime and ask her to teach her a new jutsu. However, the blonde Hokage seemed to have another thing in her mind as she ordered the pink-haired medic to bring the reports from Kotetsu and Izumo.

That's why she's heading to the gate's guards. Upon nearing the gate, she noticed a crowd of ninjas standing in front of it. They seemed to be busy with something there. Slowly, she neared the group and tried to get a better look by pushing through them.

"Excuse me…. Ops sorry…. Coming through." Sakura tried to make her way until she finally reached the center of the crowd. "What's going on....here?" Her voice faded the moment her eyes caught sight of a white-haired man on the ground.

She gasped when she saw the injured man, her eyes widened in shock as her hands clasped over her opened mouth. "K-Kakashi-sensei?" She whispered softly. The blood covering her sensei brought her back to reality and her tone quickly changed into a professional one. "What are you doing?! Quickly bring him to the hospital!" She ordered the ninjas whom were still standing.

They too were snapped out of their momentum shock and nodded their heads. Izumo and Kotetsu were the ones who rushed the injured man to the hospital with Sakura running ahead of them.

The pink-haired kunoichi couldn't believe her eyes. After so long, her sensei decided to make an appearance. Everyone thought that he was dead, everyone tried to move on with their lives but the disappearance of the copy ninja couldn't leave their minds.

Biting her lower lip out of excitement, she increased her speed in hopes of getting to the hospital faster.

The white building gradually began to appear before her, she let out a sigh of relief upon finally reaching the said building. Without looking behind her to make sure that the two guards were following her, she entered the building and quickly ordered everyone to prepare for the arrival of a new patient.

"Noriko, tell Tsunade-sama that there is a patient she must see!" Sakura ordered the nurse that was helping in the preparation for the arrival of the patient.

"H-hai!" The nurse stuttered a little as she replied then ran to get the Godaime. The said nurse had brown hair tied into a pony-tail, she had tanned skin with bright brown eyes. The nurse wondered slightly about the sudden need for the Hokage's presence but shoved those thoughts aside as she wasn't supposed to question her senior.

"Quickly, bring him here!" Sakura ordered Kotetsu and Izumo to place the white-haired man on the table. He looked to be in a quite bad shape, she grimaced when she took notice of the awful wound that marred his side.

With a frown, she began checking every part of his body to make sure that she didn't miss any other life-threatening injuries before setting to work on the main wound. "Check his vitals and place an oxygen mask over his face, it seems that he's finding some difficulty in breathing," she told them with a professional tone.

"But Sakura-sensei...," one of the nurses working with her hesitantly said while pointing at the mask covering the white-haired man's face.

"Oh, yeah. Well..." She glanced at the mask covering her sensei's face. She was dying to know what was underneath that mask but she couldn't let herself do that without a permission first.

"Sakura! Why did you call me?" Tsunade's loud voice interrupted the pink-haired medic's concentration.

"Shishou! Kakashi-sensei is still alive!" Sakura happily delivered the good news to her Shishou.

"What are you talking.....about?" At first Tsunade couldn't believe her own eyes when she saw that familiar patch of hair. Her mouth hung ajar, trying to absorb what her apprentice said and what she was seeing before her.

"Impossible. We thought that you were dead, Kakashi," she whispered softly. Her shock wore off when she noticed how seriously injured he was.

"Everyone get out of the room except for you Sakura," the blonde Hokage said in her high-pitched voice.

As ordered, the room was cleared and in it only stood Sakura and Tsunade. "Remove that piece of cloth and place an oxygen mask over his face," Tsunade said calmly as she concentrated on healing him.

At first, Sakura was a little hesitant about doing so but seeing that her sensei's condition wasn't that comforting, she slowly slid the piece of article down to unveil his face while closing her eyes, in her other hand she held the oxygen mask. Without opening her eyes, she was able to place the mask over his face.

And thanks to the little cloud that was being created each time her sensei breathed, his face was still hidden.

-

The bubble-gum-haired medic took a deep breath the moment she stepped out of Kakashi's room. Both happy and satisfied that her former sensei was still alive and that she did a pretty good job in saving his life.

After giving him some sedatives and pain-killers for when he woke up, she was able to leave him to rest.

"Sakura-chan!" Her energetic blond friend ran up to her the moment she stepped foot outside the room, with Sasuke on his trail. "Is it true, Sakura-chan? Is Kakashi-sensei really alive?" Naruto asked, hope glittering his vivid blue eyes.

"Ah." The cherry blossom smiled warmly at her friend's brightened face. She even noticed with the corner of her eye, that the cold Uchiha allowed a small smile to play on his lips for a moment. She excused herself and started leaving the hospital but not without one last glance at the closed door that held her sensei in.

_I'm happy that you're back, Kakashi-sensei._

-

To be continued....

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A/N: So sorry for the long wait but I had some trouble in arranging my ideas....anyway I hope that you enjoy this story as I can feel that you'd be surprised from the turn of the events.

**I don't own Naruto!**

**Reviews are always welcomed.**

**~KWF~**


	2. From Where You Are

**I Need You Tonight**

**-**

**Chapter II**

**Song: Lifehouse - From Where You Are.**

* * *

Gradually, the bright sun's rays faltered and turned to dim orange lines, decorating the sky. The citizens of Konoha ran around either to their houses or to close their shops. The day was coming to an end. The streets were almost abandoned as the sun disappeared and the color of darkness took over the village. The only source of light, was the lone moon with the company of the stars.

A figure that couldn't be easily missed, stood out through the dark night. A pink-haired woman walked steadily towards the place she called home.

Upon reaching it, Sakura pulled the apartment's key and jammed it into its hole, turning the door knob in the process. She sighed heavily while taking off her shoes and placing them near the door. Putting the key on the kitchen's table, she immediately headed towards the bathroom, a hot long shower waiting for her.

She striped out of her clothes and threw them outside the bathroom, on her bed. Turning on the water, she stepped into the shower and allowed the hot liquid to massage her neck. She sighed contentedly and closed her eyes, a smile gracing her perfect lips.

She couldn't remember the last time she felt that happy since that day. But now, happiness played in her chest as she could feel a heavy burden being lifted off her conscious. It'd been so long and after all that time, team seven was back in business.

Excitement rolled inside her as she couldn't contain herself from shouting out in happiness. After letting all the excitement out, she decided to quickly finish her shower, eat something then go back to the hospital and check on her sensei, till now she couldn't believe that he's back and needed to make sure that she's not dreaming.

Closing the running water, she stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel before stepping out of the bathroom. A white towel that didn't reach her knees surrounded her lean frame, hastily she put on a pair of black pants and a white tank top. She caught glimpse of the small kunai, she always used to hide when she's in her civilian clothes and decided to take it with her.

Her stomach grumbled, signaling the need of food. The pink-haired kunoichi hurried to the kitchen to prepare something for her demanding stomach. She opened the cupboards and found the only fast thing; ramen.

As she waited for the water to boil, she couldn't take her mind off the white-haired man. After all that time, he decided to make an appearance. She felt something off but unfortunately, she couldn't put her finger on.

Why would he suddenly appear out of nowhere after all that time? It didn't make sense, why now? Sakura suspected something going on but what could it possibly be? Yet again, maybe she was over thinking, she made a mental note to ask her sensei about the past five years he'd been gone missing.

She sighed before putting the boiling water on the ramen. She left it on her kitchen table before heading back to her room. Her apartment was cozy and comfortable. It consisted of one bedroom, a bathroom, a kitchen and a living room.

The walls were painted in a color of light green and were decorated with falling leaves so as to remind her that death was inevitable. Those leaves resembled Konoha's ninjas, the ones who fought for the sake of their village and died either in war or during a mission. She loved how her walls turned out to be. After all, it was Sai who painted her apartment. She would never deny how good of an artist he was.

Settling on cleaning her bedroom instead of waiting for the ramen to be ready, she placed all her thrown clothes inside the laundry basket and made a mental note to wash them at a later time, then went back to the kitchen and put the boiling water on the noodles. she waited for a few minutes before eating her food in a hurry.

Gulping the hot noodles without waiting for them to cool off a little. After finishing her meal and getting her tongue burned by the hot noodles a couple of times, she wore her shoes then stepped out of her apartment and made sure to lock the door before leaving.

The trip to the hospital was quiet. The streets were almost deserted. Most of the people were either in their houses or at the bar. She passed by a bar to find it crowded with ninja, the sounds of their laughter erupted through the village, disturbing the silence she loved so much.

A light breeze which carried the smell of sake ruffled her hair and she couldn't help but cringe a little. Yet, a small smile formed on her delicate lips. She used to frown before but now, now she could smile because that was how it's supposed to be.

That was how it was supposed to be in the past five years. Now, she could feel happiness and joy for the first time. She could even feel the air of tension and grim that used to possess the village, lift off. She didn't notice until now how Kakashi's "death" affected the village and the people in it greatly. It looked like he's well-known in Konoha that everyone missed him.

Sure, he's an elite ninja and he's the infamous copy ninja but how come even the civilians knew him? That she didn't know.

Sakura found herself standing before the huge white building. She entered it and immediately the smell of the anesthetic assaulted her nose but she didn't seem to be affected as she'd become accustomed to it more than anyone else. She remembered how she spent her days and nights in the hospital, working herself to the point that even Tsunade would come and _literally_ kick her out of the hospital and order her to take a day off.

One would say, that she had taken it way too far. But when guilt decided to attack her, there was nothing called taking it too far. She never knew that guilt could be that hard to deal with. She always thought that it would wither away with time but hers didn't want to leave her as it hunted her even in her dreams.

Finding herself standing in front of a door that she couldn't recognize standing in front of before yet she recognized the presence behind it, she turned its knob and pushed it open to find her very best and dear friends sitting on the chairs situated next to the occupied bed.

"Sakura-chan! Welcome back!" Naruto greeted his friend, being as enthusiastic as ever which earned him a hit from Sakura. "You're being too loud," she hissed before looking back at Kakashi in order to make sure that he was not disturbed from his sleep.

She sighed in relief, after knowing that he didn't even stir from his deep slumber then started checking his vitals, making sure that everything was completely fine.

"Don't worry, Sakura-chan. He wouldn't wake up even if his life depended on it." Naruto smiled sheepishly while rubbing the back of his head.

"How do you know that? You never saw him sleeping." The bubble-gum-haired woman looked incredulously at him.

"He's always late even when he knows that you're able to punch a hole through him," he told her as a matter of a fact.

"What do you mean, Naruto?" Sakura's eyes narrowed in a scary way, making the blond-haired shinobi stutter a little, afraid that he might have hit a nerve.

Without any further ado, Sakura dropped the subject and continued on checking how everything was going. She grabbed a nearby chart and studied it thoroughly to know what medication Kakashi was given when she left to take a shower and grab something to eat.

After she had finished reading it, she stepped towards the sleeping man and decided to run a full check up on him using her chakra just to be on the safe side. He had gone missing for an entire five years which resulted in him missing several physical check ups and that was bad.

Even though, she knew that her sensei was famous for skipping those check ups, she just wanted to make sure everything was fine.

Naruto and Sasuke watched her as she neared their sensei and started charging chakra in her hands. A green glow enveloped her white creamy hands as she placed them on Kakashi's forehead, deciding to start from his head.

"What are you doing?" At last, the calm Uchiha decided to voice his question as his onyx eyes were trained on her back.

"I'm running a full check up." She said as a matter of a fact before returning her full concentration back on the task at hand.

Naruto glanced at Sasuke and merely shrugged his shoulders before averting his sight to stare at his friend doing her favorite job; healing people. Naruto couldn't deny how happy he was when the news of his sensei's appearance reached him. He was grateful that the white-haired man was still alive. Over the years, Naruto watched how Sakura coped with his death.

_So far away from where you are _

_These miles have torn us world's apart _

_And I miss you _

_Yeah, I miss you _

He noticed how tired she looked all the time, how her eyes lost all their cheerfulness and glow. How black circles marred her beautiful face, and how her once white creamy skin turned pale and lifeless. When they finally managed to bring Sasuke back, he thought that she would return to her old self but he only caught a glimpse of happiness in her eyes for a second before it dulled back again.

Though, he was grateful that he was able to see that cheerfulness was back in her eyes even if it only lasted for a mere second.

But now, he noticed how her attitude changed back and her posture seemed more relaxed. He was really glad that Kakashi was back even if he was late. Naruto couldn't help the grin that spread over his lips.

From the corner of her eye, Sakura saw Naruto giving his trade mark grin. She couldn't stop herself from smiling slightly. She was really glad to see Naruto grinning like he used to do back in the old days. Naruto might have noticed that but kept it to himself so as not to burden the others.

_So far away from where you are _

_I'm standing underneath the stars _

_And I wish you were here _

Acting all cheerful and happy after two months from that terrible fight with the Uchiha traitor. But no, he couldn't fool her, even though he grinned, it was not a genuine one, it was fake ; a tool to deceive others and give a sense of normality; that everything was alright and nothing had changed.

However, now he's grinning for real, a real genuine grin. A grin that brought the feeling of confidence and comfort; her old friend was back and she's glad for that.

_I miss the years that were erased _

_I miss the way the sunshine would light up your face _

_I miss all the little things I never thought that they'd mean everything to me _

The cold Uchiha noticed the conflict of emotions playing in Naruto's ocean-blue eyes before a wide idiotic grin spread across his face. He never noticed how one person could affect so many people with his disappearance. But when he saw the state his two friends were in when he was back in the village, he understood how it _could_ affect others, and that made shame swell in his chest.

He caused his friends way too much grief and pain to be forgiven that easily and at that moment he could safely say that he's nothing but an asshole though he would never admit that out loud.

_Yeah I miss you _

_And I wish you were here _

As Sakura continued hovering her hands over Kakashi's body, pressing her chakra every once and awhile to make sure that she didn't miss a spot, she reached his chest. Her hands moving with the rhythm of his heaving bare chest, she felt her face heating up a little.

A pink blush tainted her cheeks and she fought hard to push it back but her fight ended up in vain. Ok, so she had never been that close to her sensei in her entire life and just for the record, she had never touched his chest so there was nothing wrong with her blushing madly. Besides, she never saw him shirtless and bandaged up so heavily with only an oxygen mask covering his face instead of his usual one.

_I feel the beating of your heart _

_I see the shadows of your face _

_Just know that wherever you are_

_Yeah, I miss you _

_And I wish you were here _

His chest felt tender and hot under her touch and she realized that he's suffering from a fever. His eyebrows were furrowed, she noticed and he was sweating a lot, making his hair damp and fall nicely over his eyes, almost covering them.

She pushed a little more of her chakra to ease the fever a little and give him a sense of coolness. His stiff chest relaxed under her cool touch and she felt the fever lowering a little. After finishing, she straightened up from her bent position and stretched a little to ease the stiffness her body caught.

_I miss the years that were erased _

_I miss the way the sunshine would light up your face_

_I miss all the little things_ _I never thought that they'd mean everything to me _

"All done. He's as good as new!" Sakura declared with a smile as she massaged her neck.

"All right! Why don't we go eat, I'm hungry!" Naruto whined and reached to grab Sakura's hand to pull her with him. "You're welcome to come too, teme." The blond-haired Jinchuuriki turned to look at the stiff Uchiha.

_Yeah, I miss you _

_And I wish you were here_

Sasuke grunted a reply and moved to follow the two but before he stepped out of the room, he turned to look at his sensei's laying body one last time. "Welcome back, Kakashi." He allowed a small smile to grace his lips for a fraction of a second before replacing the cold mask back and stuffing his hands into his pockets.

Naruto bounced in his steps as he walked next to the pink-haired medic, chatting about several things not noticing that Sakura wasn't giving him her full attention. After all, the blond man didn't give her a chance to reply to his questions or to say anything for the matter.

_So far away from where you are_

_These miles have torn us world's apart _

_And I miss you Yeah, I miss you _

_And I wish you were here_

It was safe to say that happiness surged through Naruto's veins like adrenaline. He couldn't remember feeling so happy like that since ever. He felt that everything was back to being right again and he would make sure that nothing would disturb that feeling.

As the trio finally reached the ramen stand, Naruto quickly ordered his favorite ramen and looked over to Sasuke to find him done with the ordering as well. He waited for Sakura to order her food until curiosity got the best of him. "What's wrong Sakura-chan? Why aren't you ordering your food?" His blue eyes shone with unhidden worry.

The bubble-gum-haired woman smiled sheepishly at him after being pulled out of her thoughts. "Nothing is wrong! I'll take beef-ramen!" She said, her voice a little shaken up.

The whiskers that marked Naruto's cheeks wrinkled as he gave her a toothy grin. Sakura sighed with relief thanking God that Naruto didn't notice her distraction. However, she knew that even if she was able to fool her blond haired companion, she wouldn't be able to fool the Uchiha genius who's sitting beside her, and her assumptions were conformed when she caught him narrowing his eyes suspiciously at her.

Sakura shifted in her position under the Uchiha's hard gaze but said nothing about her discomfort. She figured that he would let it go when their food arrived.

Just as she was hoping for, the minute the hot-streaming bowls of ramen assembled, Sasuke stopped looking at her and turned his attention to his bowl of ramen.

She sighed inwardly and picked up her chopsticks before digging into her food.

After finishing their meal and paying for it, the trio walked out of the stand with Naruto patting his stomach with a satisfied grin plastered on his face. "So where do you want to go now, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, excitement evident in his voice.

"I need to go home to review some medical charts." Sakura smiled apologetically at the disappointed look on her blond-haired friend's face.

"But I wanted to go to the pub and celebrate sensei's return!" Naruto whined like a little kid, a pout already forming on his face.

"Sorry, Naruto. Maybe when sensei _is _actually with us." Sakura waved goodbye to her two teammates before excusing herself and leaving them alone, all the while feeling Sasuke's cold gaze on her back.

She sighed heavily the moment she turned to a corner and the Uchiha's onyx eyes couldn't reach her. She walked slowly through the dark streets, lost deep in her thoughts. Something kept nagging her and she couldn't shake the bad feeling off.

"Well, well....if it isn't Tsunade's apprentice." The mocking voice felt too familiar and disgusting that it stopped Sakura in her place. Scanning through the night with her emerald eyes, she couldn't exactly pin point where the sound came from.

A presence crept from behind her. She narrowed her eyes and placed her hand on the kunai that she always kept hidden just in case. Taking a deep breath, she quickly pulled the kunai out and swung it horizontally at the intruder behind her.

The sharp edge of the metal missed its target by a hair. She searched for the person whom decided to sneak into her village. At last, when she finally caught something shining out of the corner of her eye, she turned her full attention to the man on the roof.

His eye-glasses shinning, reflecting the moon's light as he pinched the rim of his eye-glasses and pushed them up. Putting things together, Sakura's eyes widened as recognition dawned on her. "Kabuto," she hissed. Her eyes shone with hatred.

"Ah, I see you still remember me." Kabuto smirked as he jumped off the roof he was occupying to stand in front of the pink-haired kunoichi. "I'm flattered indeed." His voice dripping with mockery. The clouds of the night moved to shield the moon from view, leaving the two in the darkness.

"What do you want?" The fifth's apprentice demanded angrily. Sakura remembered hearing Sasuke say that he killed the snake Sennin so what was his loyal dog doing there?

"Good question, I must say. Though, you should probably know why I'm here." His eye-glasses shone as the clouds that were covering the moon moved out of the way.

"Sasuke?" Sakura's eyes widened slightly, she thought now that Orochimaru was dead, Sasuke would be left alone to lead a happy life -as happy as it could be-.

"I'm already done with that brat," the silver-haired man said, venom lacing his voice.

Confusion clouded Sakura's eyes and she could tell that Kabuto saw her lack of words thanks to her lack of ability in hiding her feelings, the smirk that covered his lips said it all. A lump was starting to form in the back of her throat, if it wasn't Sasuke he wanted then who was the unlucky person that caught his attention?

"I guess that you're now wondering who caught my attention, right?" He smirked at her.

"Who are you after?" She demanded, already feeling agitated. Ever since Sasuke had left Konoha to join Orochimaru, Sakura wanted to beat the hell out of the snake-man's right hand. And now that he's standing before her and she wasn't able to attack him because she wanted to know his purpose for being in Konoha wasn't making things any easier.

"Hatake Kakashi." Two simple words, two simple names made her heart race as her eyes went wide in shock and she couldn't seem to be able to say anything in return. The wind blew her hair out of her face as she stood in her place speechless.

She knew that she should have trusted her gut's feeling that something was wrong and that things couldn't go that easily, not in their world, the world of shinobi.

"Don't worry. I can assure you that I'm already done with him too but I only wanted to come and tell the copy ninja one last thing---" Sakura was snapped out her shock state by Kabuto's voice. She listened attentively to what he had to say. And she had a feeling that nothing good would ever come out of his mouth.

"Tell him this: I hope that you enjoy my parting gift, Hatake Kakashi."_ Because it'll be your last..._ He added to himself before the sound of his laugh resonated through out the dark night as he turned to leave once and for all. But before he could take another step forward, he was thrown to the ground rather painfully by a punch from the pink-haired woman.

Sakura kept her fighting stance as she panted heavily. Oh how much she had wanted to hit him. She launched at him again and pulled him by the collar of his shirt. "What have you done to him?!" She hissed as she tightened her grip on his shirt.

"You'll see when the time comes. You see, this is a rather new experiment that I have been looking forward to witness it developing but unfortunately I won't be able to watch it grow." He smirked at her shocked reaction and before she could regain her composure, he quickly made a series of hand seals then with a puff of smoke, he was gone.

Sakura stood in her place, too shocked to move, still trying to digest the information that she had just received. Her form trembled with a mix of fear for her sensei's life and anger at that disgusting loyal dog.

_I have to tell Tsunade-sama! _

Her first priority was to tell the blonde Godaime then wait for further orders from her Shishou.

She bit her lower lip until the red liquid started leaking out. She cursed under her breath as she gathered her chakra under her feet and dashed towards the Hokage Tower, hoping to find her mentor there.

_I hope Shizune-senpai forced her to finish all the paperwork today..._Sakura thought while jumping ever so gracefully from one roof to the other.

The tower stood before her in all its glory, only a few more seconds and she would be standing in front of it. Without stopping to greet the ninja who was guarding the Tower's door, she climbed up the stairs in a speed she didn't know that she possessed. Upon reaching the door to the Godaime's office, she slammed it open, surprising Tsunade.

"What's with you, Sakura?! Explain yourself!" The blonde Sennin lashed out her frustration for staying there doing paperwork instead of drinking in the bar at the pink-haired medic.

"Tsunade-sama! Kabuto was here in the village!" Sakura delivered the news frantically.

"Wha—What are you talking about?!" The blonde Hokage forgot all about her apprentice's rude entrance and focused all her attention on what Sakura had to say next.

"He was here and he came to me! He told me that he was looking for Kakashi-sensei so as to tell him to enjoy his gift!" Sakura explained in one breath, making the blonde Hokage scrunch her eye-brows in confusion.

"From the beginning Sakura and take a deep breath first." Tsunade tried to calm the frantic pink-haired woman by placing a hand on her shoulder and leading her to sit down on the chair in front of her desk.

Sakura didn't look up at her mentor's eyes and instead kept her eyes focused on her hands. When Tsunade noticed that the woman in front of her wasn't going to start any time soon, she decided to urge her to tell her everything. "Sakura, calm down. Tell me everything from the beginning." She smiled warmly even though Sakura wasn't looking at her.

Taking a deep breath, Sakura looked up at her sensei's smiling face and started explaining. "I was on my way home, when suddenly Kabuto appeared out of no where. I asked him, who he was after. At first I thought he was after Sasuke again but then he denied being interested in him so I asked him again and that's when he said he wanted Kakashi-sensei." Sakura took a deep breath before continuing.

She looked at her mentor's face for some encouragement and she found what she was looking for. "So I punched him and held him by his shirt but then he said something about a new experiment being conducted on sensei and that he wouldn't be able to witness it himself. I was shocked to hear that so I let my guard down for a moment and that's how he was able to escape but before I punched him he said to deliver his words to Kakashi-sensei."

"Which are?" Tsunade was already feeling anger boiling in her and she couldn't wait to know what that insolent brat wanted to say to Kakashi.

"He said: I hope you enjoy my parting gift, Hatake Kakashi."

-

To Be Continued....

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Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and I don't own the song.

**I hope that you enjoyed reading this chapter and please be kind and tell me what you think,**

**Till next time.**

**~KWF~**


	3. Remember Me

**I Need You Tonight**

**-**

**Chapter III**

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Tsunade sat back at her chair, her mind in a world of its own, trying to decipher the meaning behind Kabuto's words. She mumbled curses under her breath when she couldn't think of anything.

"Sakura! When Kakashi was found near the gates, was there anything with him?" Tsunade asked with anticipation.

Sakura pondered over her thoughts for a while, trying to recall the past events but she couldn't remember finding anything. "No, I'm afraid not, Tsunade-sama. You saw how he looked like when he was brought to the hospital. He was all bloody and his clothes were torn." She grimaced as she remembered how badly injured her sensei was.

The blonde Godaime cursed a little bit more before sighing deeply and saying. "I need a cup of sake." She opened her drawer and pulled out a bottle of the white liquid along with a small cup.

After taking a sip of the intoxicant white liquid, she locked her almond eyes with Sakura's emerald ones. "Go home Sakura and be sure not to tell neither Naruto nor Sasuke about this, you know how those two would probably react and I don't have time for them."

"But what about Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked worriedly.

"Don't worry about him Sakura. I'm sure that whatever it is, Kakashi can handle it himself until we figure out what Kabuto meant by 'a parting gift'." Tsunade tried to reassure her apprentice while giving her a warm motherly smile.

Although, she herself wasn't convinced by her words but she couldn't afford making Sakura worry until the man in question would wake up and answer their questions. She sighed heavily as she rubbed her temple, a headache was building in her already-tired mind.

"Hai Shishou." Sakura stood up and bowed slightly then moved to leave but before she could open the door, she looked at her mentor and asked "Can I at least visit him now?" Her voice was barely audible as if she was afraid of asking. Her eyes shone with hope and anticipation that mesmerized Tsunade.

She never once saw her apprentice-like-daughter looking at her with such intensity. Those vivid emerald eyes that were once so dead and lifeless were back to normal and Tsunade was happy to say that she's actually pleased about that.

She never liked the old Sakura whom would look at you with cold pale eyes. As a matter of a fact, every time she saw her blank face, she would immediately feel pity for the pink-haired woman. She knew how guilt can be so...._devastating _and she was so sad to watch the woman she taught, destroying herself slowly especially that her parents died a year after Kakashi was declared KIA.

"Sure Sakura. You can go visit him, I'm sure he'll be happy to know that his favorite student was visiting him all the time when he was unconscious." The blonde Hokage winked at the woman before her.

Sakura felt her face heating up a little when she heard 'his favorite student' part and hoped that her blush wasn't evident on her face.

"T-thanks, Tsunade-sama," she stuttered as she tried hard to keep her blush from showing. But unfortunately, Tsunade noticed the shade of red that painted Sakura's cheeks and smirked at her yet decided to say nothing about it.

The pink-haired woman raced to get out of the Hokage's office as she started to feel slightly uncomfortable under her mentor's observant gaze. She sighed in relief when she finally made it to the hospital.

Sakura couldn't quite explain why she wanted to see her _former _sensei so badly. It was as if something or someone was telling her to go there and make sure that he's fine. Ever since Kabuto's appearance, she felt uneasiness settle in her heart.

Worry gripped her racing heart like a hand gripping the hilt of a kunai. The cold metal of the door's knob fitted perfectly in the palm of her delicate hand. She took a deep breath before turning it and pushing the door open to reveal a white room with an occupied bed.

She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding and neared the bed that was located in the center of the room. She peered carefully at the person sleeping in it and felt relief swelling in her chest. She sat on the chair near the bed and stared at the white-haired man.

Sakura's eyebrows were furrowed together showing her displeasure at the sight before her. Sure, that wasn't the first time her sensei had been in the hospital but that didn't mean that she's used to seeing him so...helpless like that, confined to the white bed sheets.

Tears stung at the corners of her eyes and she could feel her vision blurring but she didn't make any attempt to wipe them away. It was now that the effects of the copy nin's return were taking a toll on her. At first, happiness was all she could feel, however, it's now replaced with anger and a sort of sadness.

The salt drops ran freely down her cheeks and she didn't move to wipe them away, she simply kept them falling to remind herself that the feeling of sadness was still there and would never go away that easily. As she learned a tough lesson from all that happened the past few years; everyone was bound to die.

Kakashi's shallow breaths brought her back to reality, the raspy sound of his breaths indicated the pain he was suffering from which made her sadness increase ten folds with each sound he uttered.

Finally, the cherry-blossom decided to stop his pain and do something about it. She hastily wiped her tears and neared him.

She placed both of her chakra-charged hands on his neck and channeled her chakra down his system. At first, she felt him shivering under her cold touch but then his body relaxed and leaned into it.

* * *

_Cold. His body felt cold. Something metal was pressed against his back or was he the one who's pressed against it, he couldn't tell but it made him feel cold nonetheless. He shivered a little and the sound of his teeth clattering resounded throughout the quiet room._

_He cracked his eyes open and blinked a couple of times, trying to clear his blurry vision. Looking around for a source of light, he couldn't find any. He felt tired and his body ached all over but he still tried to sit up._

_However, he couldn't. Something was holding him down. He tried to lift his hand but couldn't, it wouldn't move or budge from its place, the same happened to his other hand and feet._

_The sound of foot steps on marble floor stopped him from moving. He concentrated hard on hearing what the other person was doing. He heard the sound of shuffling papers then heard the sound of something metal._

_The hairs on the back of his neck suddenly stood up as he felt something stinging him and piercing the skin of his arm. He winced inwardly but made no sound as he felt cold liquid enter his blood stream. _

"_I know that you're awake," the person stated as he neared the confined man on the metal table._

_Kakashi tried to speak but his voice only came out as a raspy breath. He figured that whatever he was injected with wasn't a substance he would want to try again._

_A few seconds passed, when a sudden wave of pain came rushing at every nerve in his body. He tried to muffle his scream but it came out as a moan of pain as he felt needles piercing every cell in his body over and over again. _

"_I see that this isn't your type of medicine," the man said, amused. The copy ninja heard the sound of something clicking against glass. He figured it to be the sound of preparing another needle. _

_His suspicions were confirmed when he felt something injecting him, but that time in his neck. A stronger wave of pain forced him to scream in agony. He felt as if he was burning hot, so hot that it made him feel so cold. His body started shaking as he chocked on the air he breathed._

"_Hm...so your neck is more sensitive. I think that I've found the suitable medicine for you," the man whispered the last part near Kakashi's ear to make sure that he heard him clearly._

_Kakashi thrashed around violently, trying to get rid of his confines. He needed to get out of there. His neck ached and throbbed painfully as if his skin was being peeled off his body. He had never experienced such pain ever in his life._

_After what felt like hours but was only mere minutes, he quieted down. So drained and so tired that he couldn't lift a finger. His capturer decided to release one of Kakashi's hands to see what his reaction would be._

_And for the first time, Kakashi was able to move his right hand. It took everything in him to move his hand and reach with it to his aching neck. He placed it on top of his sore neck relieving in the cold feeling his hand provided, before he lost his consciousness._

"_Session one. Success," the man concluded with joy._

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_

Sakura almost yelped in surprise when she felt a shivering hand on hers. She looked at it and couldn't believe her eyes, it was Kakashi's. She took his hand into hers and tried to warm it when she realized how cold it felt against her skin.

She heard him moaning in pain and furrowing his eyebrows in distress. She placed her other hand on top of his forehead and felt it burning hot, so she hurriedly went to the bathroom, filled a bowl with water and took a towel with her before she hastily made her way back to her sensei's side.

She soaked the white article with cold water before placing it on top of the white-haired man's forehead. She waited for a little while before repeating the same action over again. She stared at the face of the man she desired to see. Even though the oxygen mask covered a portion of his face, she still got to see a little of his features.

The pink-haired medic realized how much she missed looking at him and how much he had changed her life. If it hadn't been for the fact that she had been placed in his team, she wouldn't have become the person she was.

Granted, he never gave her the same attention the boys got but she never held that against him. In fact, she was grateful for him, because of that she went to learn under one of the legendary Sannin, Tsunade.

Sakura's eyelids started falling, declaring the need for sleep but she pushed herself to stay awake. She couldn't afford to leave her sensei in that state. She would leave the minute she made sure his fever went down, she decided.

She sighed for the umpteenth time that day and looked over at the spot where Kakashi touched her hand. She felt her cheeks heating up a little when she remembered the feeling of his strong hand on top of hers. Even if it felt cold, it still had the feeling of power and experience.

Her mind wandered to the reason behind his sudden movement so she decided to test a little theory of hers. Hesitantly, she placed her hand on top of his neck and felt him stiffen but that time he didn't relax under her touch.

She waited for awhile but nothing happened, she sighed at her failed attempt and was about to move her hand when she felt a strong hand grip hers. She was taken aback at first then noticed how his hand shook.

She frowned at that then freed her hand from his grip before holding it. Could she and Tsunade have missed something? A green light emitted from her hands as she checked the nerves in his. She gasped as her eyes widened before glancing at him one more time.

The nerves were roughly damaged and were in a bad condition. She didn't expect that as it didn't show when he was first brought there.

Before she started working on fixing the nerves in his hands, she soaked the towel with water one more time before placing it on top of his forehead again. Sakura took a deep breath and adjusted her position to be sitting next to him on the bed before starting the healing process.

Her delicate pink eyebrows were knitted together in concentration, beads of sweat trailed down her forehead as she controlled her chakra and tried not to cause any pain to the white-haired man. He suffered a lot and didn't deserve any more pain.

Sakura bit her lower lip out of frustration as she noticed how serious the situation was. The nerves were deeply damaged and required a lot of time and work, and for a moment she doubted that she alone could get the job done.

However, she kept on holding his hand and healing it. She felt that she owed him a lot and by doing that, she would be at least paying him back for saving her life that day.

The pink-haired medic took a deep breath as her chakra traveled deeply into his system, entering his chakra circulation.

-

_What is this feeling? _

Kakashi struggled to identify the foreign chakra that traveled through his veins. It felt nice, sort of cold but nice nonetheless. He felt that he could let it course through him so he didn't fight it or try to stop it from mingling itself any further.

For the first time for a long time, he could say that he felt safe and relaxed. Never in those past years did he feel his muscles so relaxed. A barely audible sigh escaped his cracked lips. His mouth felt warm every time he would breathe and he wondered why.

He fought against every pain in his body and cracked his lone eye open. At first, he couldn't see anything, his vision was hazy and the room's dim light didn't help in improving the matter. He sighed again and closed his eye.

Gathering the remaining bits of his energy, he opened both of his eyes. The moment he opened his transported eye, a fit of coughs was caught in his throat.

Sakura snapped her head to look at her sensei, shock written all over her pretty face. Her eyes were wide open and her mouth was slightly cracked. She couldn't believe what she was seeing.

_Kakashi-sensei is awake..._

She was awoken from her shock state, when she heard him coughing. In a minute, she was by his side, helping him up to a sitting position with one of her hands on his back trying to ease the coughing fit and bring it to a stop.

Without another thought, Kakashi removed the oxygen mask and threw it away to let it fall on the floor with a loud cracking noise. After his coughing eased a little, Sakura couldn't contain herself as a jolt of joy coursed through her, her arms unconsciously flew towards her sensei's neck, pulling him into a hug.

A seemingly never ending stream of tears poured out of her eyes. She sobbed into his shoulder, making it wet but she couldn't care at that moment. All she cared about was that her sensei was finally awake.

"Don't you do this ever again, sensei," she pleaded softly, a ting of order lacing her voice as she kept hugging him. Kakashi's eyes widened slightly at first but then he allowed himself to smile a little. He didn't realize that his death would affect his students that badly.

Gently, he pulled out of the pink-haired woman's hug. "I'm sorry for causing you so much pain," he said in an apologetic tone. Although, he couldn't exactly see the person before him because of his blurry vision, he felt that he needed to apologize to him or her.

The cherry blossom wiped her tears as she tried to calm herself. She didn't expect to break down in front of her sensei like that. But all that didn't matter as she looked up at Kakashi's smiling face.

Sakura's eyes widened as she fought hard to steady her racing heart. There he was, her sensei, the infamous copy ninja who never showed his face to anyone, sitting without a mask. Another series of coughs took hold of his body. Now, the only thing that's hiding his face was the hand covering his mouth.

His eyes were closed shut in obvious pain as one hand gripped his side. Sakura noticed the blood stains on the bandages that covered his wound side. She frowned in worry as she moved to look at his opened wound.

"Let me see it," she whispered as she tried to get a closer look.

Kakashi raised his head and opened his eyes to see pink hair, lots and lots of pink hair. He wracked his brain to remember where he saw that color before. He smiled as recognition dawned on him. "Sakura," he whispered as he moved the hand that was covering his mouth.

When she first heard him calling her name, she struggled to stop herself from crying again. Oh, how much she missed hearing his voice. She smiled back at him then realized that there was nothing hiding the lower portion of his face.

She blushed a deep shade of crimson as she noticed how handsome he really was. He had a point, his face shouldn't be shown in public or else all the female population in Konoha would be on his trail.

His nose stood strong and straight matching perfectly with his face, his cheeks were pale white and his left cheek -although was marred by a nasty scar- still held the meaning of beauty. His jaw line firm and hard, his lips, his lips were another case; they looked soft, pale and smooth.

Her hand unconsciously traced his jaw line all the way to his lips, leaving a tingling sensation that caused Kakashi to shiver a little under her careful touch. Sakura didn't realize what she was doing until she heard him chuckling softly.

"Well, what do you think?" His voice was hoarse and tired.

"Huh? Oh, it's...it's beautiful." She didn't know what to say. The man she called her 'sensei' had a face that no man _could _rival not even Sasuke. Sasuke himself who all the women in the village drooled over was no match for the copy ninja.

"Well...I don't think that any man would appreciate being called _beautiful_." A smirk ghosted over his lips.

Sakura felt her face heat up as she tried to look any where but at the man before her. "Then you look.....handsome," she mumbled the last part, feeling embarrassed to say that to her sensei.

He smiled at her but Sakura saw something wrong in the way he smiled. It didn't feel genuine like it used to be before he went missing. "Are you sure you're fine, sensei?" She asked incredulously as she narrowed her eyes at him.

"I'm fine," he assured her, his eyes seemingly lost and distant.

It wasn't until later did Sakura notice the position she's in. Her face was only a few inches away from the white-haired man's and she could feel his breath tickling her neck. She flushed as she stuttered to break the silence. "I-I should heal your opened wound."

"Ah." He winced as he moved a little to give her some space.

The bubble-gum-haired woman swallowed hard as she put all her concentration on the task at hand. Even as she tried her utmost to concentrate on healing him, she couldn't shake the feeling that her sensei was watching every move she did.

After giving up on trying to ignore his persistent gaze, she turned to fix him a cold glare. "Would you stop that!" She hissed as she narrowed her eyes at his obvious play of innocence.

"What?" He blinked at her.

"That!" She yelled as she waved her hands around frantically.

"I didn't do anything," he told her as a matter of a fact, trying to act innocent when he knew exactly what she was talking about. He was not a genius for nothing after all.

"GAH! You're impossible Kakashi!" Sakura sighed exasperatedly. Then she noticed that she forgot to add his honorific to his name. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to drop your honorific," she apologized.

"Sakura, it's about time that you and Naruto drop the 'sensei' part. We are now teammates and not teacher and student," Kakashi assured her that it's okay to call him by his first name only.

"But---" When she tried to object, all what it took to make her stop was one look from her former sensei. "Fine," she agreed reluctantly.

"If you must, you can call me 'Kakashi-sama' or 'Hatake-sama'," he teased her with a smirk on his face.

"No thank you. I think I'll stick to only 'Kakashi'." She tried to contain her obvious irritation. Kakashi lifted a silver eyebrow at her but didn't comment nonetheless.

"Let me finish fixing your side before starting on your hands. So lie down," she ordered him in a professional tone.

"Alright." He winced a little as he tried to lie down with the help of Sakura. Kakashi let out a huge breath when he finally settled into the comfortable bed. It took a lot out of him just to lie back down though he didn't do anything but talk!

Her professional hands glowed green as they trailed over his side till they reached their destination. She felt Kakashi stiffen underneath her touch so she tried to assure him by giving him a small smile. He smiled back at her then closed his eyes, allowing the sense of security and comfort for once envelop him. Though, never once did he let his guard down.

After finally, mending the opened wound, she gave out a large sigh of relief and looked at the man on the bed. From his even breathing, she concluded that he's asleep.

He looked so peaceful, sleeping like that, like there was nothing to worry about and she didn't mind that at all. As a matter of a fact, she gave him her full support for being like that because he deserved to feel a little bit at ease. She couldn't think about what he could have possibly been through those past five years.

Suddenly, she remembered his damaged nerves, she had to fix them before they got much worse. Who knew what would happen if their state progressed any further, it would be disastrous. They were already hard to heal as they were now.

Good thing she followed her hunch that time and went to check on him. As she put all of her attention on healing his severed nerves, memories of the past came rushing back at her.

How they used to go out on missions together when they were team 7. How Kakashi always acted lazy and laid-back in front of them but when it came down to fighting or protecting them, he would completely change.

She couldn't deny that she missed those days, but she also wouldn't say that they were the best memories of her life. Since Sasuke had been so focused on getting his revenge. He had always been tense and hungry for more power.

But now, everything seemed a lot more appealing. Now, they were all back together to reform team 7 again; team Kakashi. And she wouldn't let anything no matter what cause that beautiful dream to shatter.

* * *

"Sakura?"

The cherry blossom woman ignored the person calling her and kept her eyes closed, determined to get back to sleep.

"Sakura, wake up this instance!" A familiar sharp voice ordered.

Sakura mumbled a series of curses under her breath as she peeked from under her eyelids at the person who dared to disturb her peaceful slumber. The moment her eyes lay on her blonde mentor, they widened significantly.

"Shishou! What are you doing here?" Sakura asked as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.

"I could ask you the same thing," her instructor retorted back with irritation clear in her voice.

"What do you mean?" The pink-haired medic wondered as she looked around her and noticed that she wasn't in her own room. "Where am I?" She muttered under her breath.

"In Kakashi's room," the blonde Hokage pointed out the obvious with an annoyed look painting her almond eyes. "Did you spend the night here?"

"I guess," her apprentice answered as realization finally dawned on her. She looked hastily at the white-haired man's hands and found that she still had one of his hands in hers. She quickly let go of it and felt her face heat up a little from the embarrassment.

"I told you to go home yesterday," Tsunade stated, waiting for a satisfying excuse from the pink-haired kunoichi.

"I'm sorry Tsunade-sama, but when I came here, Kakashi was suffering from a fever so I stayed until it went down but then I discovered that he suffered from another injury. Which reminds me Shishou, the nerves in both of his hands are severely damaged," Sakura explained while looking over at her former sensei.

At first, Tsunade arched a delicate eyebrow at the lack of honorific after Kakashi's name but then all was forgotten when she heard her student's explanation of Kakashi's newly found injury. How could that be? There was only one way for that to happen without cutting off his hands and that was by stinging the nerves with needles which meant; torture.

She looked sadly at him as a pang of guilt rushed through her. She should have listened to both Naruto and Sakura when they had told her to keep searching and never to lose faith in him. But now, there's no use in feeling guilty over something that had already happened.

-

To be continued....

* * *

**I don't own Naruto nor its characters, they are simply the property of their rightful owner Masashi Kishimoto. **

**Sadly, I couldn't find a suitable song so if you have anything on your mind, feel free to tell me.**

**As always, Reviews are appreciated.**

**Thanks for reading!**

**~KWF~**


	4. Something Inside

**I Need You Tonight**

**-**

**Chapter IV**

**I don't own Naruto.**

**Listening to: All I want by Staind.**

**

* * *

**_Knock....knock_

A loud muffled grumble echoed throughout the apartment. Clearly, indicating an unpleasant mood. Another knocking was heard and was followed by a man's voice. "Open up, Haruno!"

The man's voice made the pink-haired woman utter curses under her breath as she buried her head deeper into the pillow, she was tired and she needed sleep and nothing in the world would deprive her from enjoying her peaceful slumber.

The knocking turned into banging which made her crack an eye open. She worried that the door would shatter under the constant and rather persistent banging. She sighed heavily and swung her feet out of her bed, not caring about how she looked or what she was wearing, she trudged towards the door with a clear thought in mind to kill whoever dared to disturb her peaceful time.

Taking a deep slow breath to calm her nerves a little, she didn't want to look like a raging beast after all, she swung the door open and yelled at the person before her, not paying attention to who the person was. Honestly, she didn't give a damn about the person's identity.

"What!" She shouted at whoever was standing in front of her. Her eyes were half way closed and her hair was ruffled, each lock of pink hair had its own mind. Her clothes were messy and black bags under her eyes marred her beautiful face.

"Nice clothes." Followed by a whistle. She was wearing a pair of pink shorts with a baggy white t-shirt on top.

When Sakura had finally registered what the person before her said, she couldn't help but groan. "Argh, Genma. What do you want?" She asked him impatiently. Don't take her wrong. She didn't have anything against the man but he proved to be a pain in the ass sometimes.

"No 'good morning' or 'come in'? You really have hurt me, Sakura-chan." Genma smiled at her as he faked being hurt by putting his hand on top of his chest.

Sakura sighed and closed her eyes for a minute before opening the door fully and inviting him in. He immediately accepted her invitation and entered her apartment, treating himself like he's at home. Taking a look at her apartment, he couldn't help but notice how messy it was but he kept silent so as not to bother her any further.

"Give me a minute while I change," she mumbled before heading towards her bedroom.

"'Want some help?" The lecherous man smirked, knowing well enough her answer before she opened her mouth. Sakura glared at him before leaving him in the living room alone.

"Nice apartment." He walked discreetly towards her kitchen as he marveled how a young attractive woman could be that terrible in keeping order of her things. Of course that worked in his favor, because if luck was on his side, he would catch a glimpse of maybe her underwear? She might be a little careless and have left them somewhere in that room.

After having swept the room with his keen almond eyes, he started making his way towards her kitchen. "Want some coffee?" He raised his voice just enough for her to hear him.

"Yeah, that would be great," she answered from her room. After a few minutes, she emerged from her bedroom, wearing her usual outfit; a red top with a beige skirt, underneath it were her black shorts. Her ninja pouch was securly tugged in its place and the kunai hostler on her right thigh. Without even sparing him a glance, she headed towards the cup of the black liquid he had presented her.

"Had a rough night?" He asked her as he sipped his own coffee.

Sakura sipped her hot coffee thoroughly, enjoying the warm feeling it gave her as it coursed through her to finally settle in her stomach. "Not exactly," she finally answered him, her hands holding the cup, relieving in its warmth.

"Then why the tired face?" He pointed at her with his index finger while giving her a small smile.

Sakura couldn't restrain herself from smiling back at him. Now she remembered why she liked hanging out with him. He always made her laugh even when she's down. Especially after that fateful day, nobody made her smile genuinely like he did, sure Naruto helped too. But she felt safe around him, he reminded her so much of Kakashi.

Maybe because Genma and Kakashi were most of the time teamed up together and they were always at the bar with all the other jounin? She didn't know and it didn't exactly matter, because they both gave her the same feeling of familiarity and security.

The pink-haired medic sighed before talking. "Yesterday, I discovered that the nerves in Kakashi's hands were damaged quite a bit so I spent most of the night trying to heal them and I only came back a few hours ago." She sipped her coffee carefully.

"I'm sure that it's nothing our Kakashi can't handle!" He proclaimed while waving his hand like the matter didn't deserve that much attention.

"I wish I could say that." She hung her head low, her eyes firmly trained on the coffee in the cup. As a matter of a fact, Sakura was more than worried, she couldn't shake the bad feeling that settled in the pit of her stomach.

Genma noticed the sudden mood swing and decided that it would be safer to tell her why he's there then leave. "Ah! That reminds me, Hokage-sama wants you to go to the hospital as soon as possible." He put his cup on the table before walking casually towards the door.

"And you tell me now!" She exclaimed with a worried look as she hastily put her own cup in the sink before heading towards the door where her sandals laid waiting for her. She quickly put them on and grabbed her small red bag, the senbon-wielding man was already waiting for her with the door wide open.

He gave her a wink before she slipped past him towards the hospital, counting on him to close the door. He sighed loudly and shook his head. "She really needs to take things easy," he muttered under his breath. Stuffing his hands inside his pockets, he wandered into the village.

Sakura raced through the village, careful not to bump into anyone on her way. She muttered a series of curses under her breath when the image of the lecherous man came into her mind. If Tsunade scolded her for her tardiness, she would make sure to beat the living daylight out of him.

When she finally reached the hospital, she noticed the nurses rushing towards a specific room. She immediately recognized it as Kakashi's, her heart pounded in her chest as fear took hold of her senses. She quickly gave her bag to a nearby nurse to put it in her office before hurrying to her former sensei's room.

The pink-haired medic opened the door non-too-gently and caught glimpse of the blonde Hokage. Tsunade was so focused on fixing the problem that had suddenly appeared without a warning, that she didn't notice Sakura's presence until she heard her gasp slightly.

"About time you've arrived Sakura," the blonde Sannin complained without taking her eyes off her patient.

"I'm sorry for being late Tsunade-sama," Sakura apologized before averting her sight towards the silver-haired man on the bed. "What's wrong?" she asked, trying to make her way towards the occupied bed.

The nurses immediately moved aside when they saw the Hokage's apprentice heading towards the bed. They knew that possibly only her and the Hokage herself could save that patient's life.

"What's the situation?" Sakura asked in a professional manner, keeping her eyes trained on the patient, in attempt of figuring out the problem.

"Noriko!" Tsunade shouted, indicating that the brown-haired nurse should explain everything to her.

"His chakra pressure is high, it seems that there is something stopping the chakra from flowing. We don't know where but it's causing a deterioration in his state and it's possible that he may lose his life," the nurse briefed Sakura quickly before hurrying to assist the other nurses in carrying out Tsunade's orders.

"We can't save him here; we'll have to take him to the OR!" Sakura's voice held clear concern for the silver-haired man's life. Why was that happening? Sakura didn't know, she was tired and only one question crossed her mind at that moment.

_When will everything be back to normal?_

"We're moving him to the OR number one! Hurry up!" Tsunade ordered. She bit her lower lip out of frustration.

After finally reaching their desired destination, Tsunade called for the best medic to help in the surgery. The surgery was not easy even for the legendary Sennin, she needed help in performing it and Sakura was the perfect assistant in that delicate surgery.

"It's all my fault. If I had been skilled enough, this wouldn't have happened." After sometime, Sakura admitted softly. Her hands glowing green and trying to solve the cause of the problem.

"It's not your fault," Tsunade assured her. Her eyes never leaving the spot she's healing. "You did your best. It was not an easy task," she stated.

"But--"

"No buts Sakura! Now concentrate on your work," the blonde Hokage told her.

The surgery was simple in theory but when it came down to its performance, it was considered an A rank mission or even a higher rank. Finding the place of the problem was surely an easy thing to do, because of Sakura's discovery last night. But trying to heal it proved to be a challenge even for the blonde Hokage.

Healing nerves was never an easy task and in his case, his nerves were not the only ones affected but also the chakra stream in his hands. Tsunade could honestly say that she's worried about his ability of using his hands if they were able to solve the problem.

She made a mental note to ask Kakashi to move his hands and to execute a number of difficult jutsus in front of her just to be on the safe side and to make sure that his chakra system wasn't damaged.

As Tsunade worked on his left hand, Sakura worked on his right one. "There's something that you want to say, spit it out already!" The almond-eyed woman demanded, irritation clear in her voice. "I don't need you spacing out at a time like this."

The pink-haired woman was surprised at first to the point that she lost her focus for a fraction of a second which resulted in disturbing her chakra control. But then she quickly regained her composure and looked at her Shishou questioningly, how did she know that something was bothering her? That was beyond her.

"I wonder how Kakashi was able to wake up yesterday when his chakra pressure was this high?" The cherry blossom voiced out her question and waited for her mentor to answer her.

It took Tsunade some time to answer Sakura's question because she herself was wondering about that. After giving up on finding an answer, she sighed heavily. "I guess he had a pretty good reason to wake up." She winked at the pink-haired woman whom blushed a deep color of red in return.

"Shishou!" Sakura complained.

The Hokage only shrugged and continued on healing Kakashi's hand. "How far are you?" She asked, seriousness painting her voice.

"Almost done." A drop of sweat trailed down Sakura's forehead.

"It's time for the jutsu, Sakura. Are you sure that you can do it?" Tsunade looked at her apprentice whom she considered like her daughter, searching for any signs of hesitation or nervousness, but she found none.

"I can do it," the pink-haired woman replied back, confidence radiating from her very being. Her eyes showed no signs of worry or fear instead, they glowed with determination. The blonde woman allowed a small smile to grace her lips before concentrating back on performing the jutsu.

"You know that it's a forbidden jutsu, don't you?" Tsunade asked her casually, wanting to give the determined woman another chance to rethink about her decision.

"Yes I do," Sakura replied furiously, making her mentor proud of her.

"Alright then! Let's get started." The almond-eyed Sennin declared the beginning of the forbidden jutsu. She made a series of complicated seals and Sakura followed her closely. Sakura's hands glowed a strange color of crimson and she stared at them in amazement before looking back at her mentor.

A look of satisfaction graced Tsunade's features when she noticed that Sakura was able to clear the first step of the forbidden jutsu. To be honest, she didn't think that Sakura had the ability to endure calling out her inner chakra, especially that, that was her first time ever. She hadn't even practiced the technique before. "This, as you may be wondering, is the color of your inner chakra; your inner strength. The one that doesn't come out only in dire situations," she explained.

"As I see, yours is crimson. It fits your personality well; stubborn and short tempered." The blonde Hokage smirked when she saw a light shade of pink coloring Sakura's cheeks.

"You can see my chakra? But why can't I see yours?" Sakura asked curiously, clearly amazed by the fact that her chakra could be seen not only by her but also by her Shishou.

"This is your surgery now. Besides, the jutsu can be performed on the same person only by one person." She studied Sakura's reaction at hearing that and waited till that piece of information sank in before continuing.

"Now let's start step two, shall we?" Tsunade looked at her apprentice before ordering her. "Place your hands on his and let the chakra you called for seep into it slowly. Be careful or you might do more harm than good," she warned her and watched her as she let the crimson chakra course through his hand.

The chakra had kept glowing crimson even in his hand before the glowing finally dimmed. Kakashi's hand had twitched a little before a moan escaped his lips, causing Sakura to look at her Shishou with worry.

"Don't worry. It's a forbidden jutsu so it's bound to cause him some pain." She tried to reassure her but that only made her apprentice more hesitant.

"There's no going back now Sakura. That's why I asked you twice if you were ready to do this or not. The moment your inner chakra entered his system, you were bound to be the one to heal him every time he became injured. His body now cannot accept any other chakra but yours," Tsunade stated grimly.

Sakura's eyes had widened for a moment before they returned back to normal. They held nothing but confidence and determination. She was going to do that no matter what and there's no going back in that.

She nodded to indicate that she understood what her mentor told her. The pink-haired medic placed all her chakra control and concentration into healing her sensei. She tried as much as she could to block the winces and the groans that escaped Kakashi's mouth but the task proved to be quite hard and she was starting to get frustrated.

She clapped her eyes shut and poured the crimson-colored chakra into the specified spot with care.

"Now, try to transform your inner chakra into the usual healing type chakra. You'll have to do it carefully so as not to hurt your chakra circulation system," Tsunade added as she watched her apprentice intently.

Sakura gulped nervously, and steadily decreased her inner chakra's flow. A green color mixed with crimson started to glow around her hands, Sakura smiled slightly at her success from her first try and concentrated into finishing the transformation.

After what seemed to be like eternity but was only mere minutes, Tsunade was able to breathe normally. She couldn't help but feel anxious for the pink-haired Kunoichi's well-being even if she was one of the best medics in Konoha.

Sakura was still young to learn such forbidden jutsus but in the world of Shinobi, there's nothing called young. However, when she saw the young woman before her, she felt pride swell in her chest and a small smile ghosted over her lips.

"Good job. Now start working on the second hand. Follow the steps carefully and don't be rash," the blonde Godaime ordered her and moved a little to the side to give her apprentice some space.

Sakura nodded affirmatively, feeling happiness for being able to do something good for once, something that would be remembered and not be brushed off like it's nothing. Her emerald orbs glowed with intensity and they even had a glimmer of crimson in them as she started charging her inner chakra.

She followed the steps exactly as her Shishou had told her. That time, feeling neither anxious nor concerned when hearing the pained voices the silver-haired man produced.

She remembered all the times when her sensei used to save her when they were team seven. When she would always get kidnapped or attacked and the whole team would try to save her. Kakashi was the one who always saved her and brought her back to safety, because the two boys were always either beating the living daylight out of the enemies or bickering as usual.

The memories were still fresh in her mind as she thought about the old days when Kakashi comforted her and tried to assure her that he would always protect her. 'Don't worry, I'll protect you with my life' his voice rang all too clearly in her head. And he never broke his promise, he did protect her with his life and he did fulfill his promise to her.

Sakura's hands trembled a little, disturbing her steady flow of chakra for a second which earned her a worried and somewhat disapproving look from the legendary Sennin. The bubble-gum-haired woman winced a little as she felt the palms of her hands burning from the chakra's intensity. Tsunade warned her not to lose her concentration but she didn't expect to be burned because of losing it for a second.

_I guess that's why it's called a forbidden jutsu._

"Are you okay, Sakura?" Tsunade questioned the pink haired woman.

"Yes. I'm fine, Tsunade-sama," Sakura assured her. _Just got burned from my own chakra...._

When she finally reached the stage where she would start changing the crimson chakra into the healing type, she felt that she could relax a little. After all, healing with the usual green glow was her specialty and she could do it with both of her eyes closed.

A bead of sweat trailed down her cheek, her hands were enveloped in the usual green glow, she took a deep breath as she put the final touches on the injured spot. Gingerly, the green light ceased to appear and faded the minute Sakura stopped channeling her chakra.

She stepped back a little from where her former sensei was lying and breathed out a large sigh of relief. Wiping the drops of sweat that tainted her pretty face, she turned to the Godaime with a smile plastered on her face.

"I did it." The feelings of happiness and content filled Sakura's chest. She glanced at the sleeping man and couldn't help but smile at him.

"Good work, Sakura," Tsunade congratulated the pink-haired woman and patted her on the back. She ordered the nurses to clean everything up and return the copy ninja back to his room.

The world around Sakura felt like it was spinning, she placed her hand on her forehead in a poor attempt of trying to stop the dizziness that overwhelmed her. She stumbled on her feet before blackness took over her vision.

Tsunade quickly grabbed Sakura by the hand to stop her from falling before calling out for a nurse to come and take her to one of the rooms in the hospital. She noticed how badly burned her palms were and shook her head, feeling slightly irritated at the pink-haired woman for not telling her that she had hurt herself but also feeling proud nonetheless.

"She's just tired because of using a massive amount of chakra. Take her to a room and bandage her hands," the Hokage said while leaving Sakura to one of the nurses.

"You really are something, Haruno," Tsunade supplied with a smile on her face before leaving to attend to her paperwork in her office much to her dismay.

* * *

The palms of her hands felt like they were on fire. They ached terribly and that what awoke her from her unconscious state. She winced inwardly as she attempted to sit, looking around her with mild interest; she found that she was accommodating one of the hospital's rooms.

She swung her legs out of the bed to make her way out of the room, when a wave of dizziness assaulted her poor mind. She shut her eyes tightly and held a bandaged hand to her forehead to ease the tiredness a little.

When she felt that it was safe for her to open her eyes and resume her quest towards the exist, she noticed the bandages that covered her hands. She wondered briefly about the reason behind them when a memory of what happened before she passed out, flashed in front of her eyes.

Her heart beat started racing with worry but then it returned to its usual rhythm, the moment she remembered the success she'd harvested from completing the forbidden jutsu. She sighed in relief before turning the cold doorknob and skidding down to find her Shishou.

She had some questions that wouldn't leave her alone. Her curiosity overwhelmed her weariness, so many things wandered through her mind, waiting to be irrigated from the well of knowledge, her mentor reflected.

Upon spotting the familiar blonde head of the Godaime, Sakura raced to get to her and satisfy her demanding self. "Shishou," Sakura greeted with a polite nod of her head.

"Ah, I see that you're awake," Tsunade responded before returning back to reading the medical chart of some other patient.

"Shishou, I want to ask you some questions," the pink-haired medic inquired with interest sparkling in her emerald orbs.

"I knew that you would want to ask me some questions. Well... feel free to shoot," Tsunade encouraged her while reviewing the chart at hand.

"Why did you choose me to do that forbidden jutsu? Why not Shizune-senpai? Isn't she the second best medic in the village?" Sakura's nervousness was expected, but it stretched to accommodate feelings of fear and dread from hearing her superior's answer, though she tried as much as she could not to let it show on her face.

She waited patiently for the inevitable, waiting for her Shishou's answer as she worried her lower lip.

Tsunade sighed and put the chart she was reviewing aside and stared at her apprentice straight in the eyes. "You're taking yourself too lightly, Sakura. You two now are on equal footing when it comes down to skill but not in experience. Though that doesn't deny you from the right to execute difficult jutsus or even forbidden ones."

Sakura could only stare as her mentor continued on with what she was saying. "Besides, that was your sensei over there and I knew that you wanted to help him so badly so I couldn't deny you the chance." Tsunade smiled sheepishly at her.

"Thank you for having so much faith in me, Tsunade-sama." Sakura's world brightened considerably, her superior's words gave her so much hope and lifted her spirits to a whole new level. She felt more confident and more capable of handling anything that would come her way.

Her eyes shone with happiness and joy, a lot of good things were happening to her lately that she could honestly say that she feared something awful would come after them. It felt so strange, that feeling of happiness, so foreign that she could almost recognize it and cope with. She had forgotten how to deal with such emotions since they weren't frequent events in those past few years.

Sakura awoke from her momentum of happiness and remembered that she wanted to ask Tsunade another thing. "Shishou, does each person has his own unique inner chakra? I mean in terms of color and ability?" Sakura wondered with obvious earnest.

"Yes. As was demonstrated, your chakra is crimson and it specializes in healing and that was one of the reasons why I chose you to execute the jutsu. Shizune's is dark purple but she doesn't like it much because it's poisonous," Tsunade mused over the last sentence.

Sakura absorbed every little piece of information her mentor threw at her like a sponge, her interest never seemed to be reaching its satisfaction limit. Suddenly, another question popped into her train of thoughts and she found herself appealed to know the answer to it.

"What about Kakashi?"

"What about Kakashi?" Tsunade echoed as a delicate blond eyebrow was arched. Her apprentice's curiosity and drop of honorifics never ceased to amaze her. How Sakura's relationship with her sensei changed to start dropping the honorifics truly had her interested. But when that started was the real question.

"I mean his inner chakra, what would it be like?" Sakura seemed to be oblivious to the smirk that ghosted over Tsunade's lips. Why she suddenly felt the need to know more about her former sensei was beyond her control.

"Hm...I think that it would be of a white color and that it would specialize in assassination......it would be kind of like his bloodline," Tsunade whispered the last part, careful not to let anyone hear her saying anything about the Hatake bloodline.

Sakura understood the blonde Hokage's meaning and nodded her head softly. As a matter of a fact, she knew exactly what she was talking about. After all, she had witnessed its destructive power with her own two eyes and to say that it was frightening would be an understatement.

"Oh, thanks a lot Tsunade-Shishou," Sakura thanked her and turned to leave when the Hokage called her. "Sakura, I forgot to tell you: do not use that jutsu under any circumstances, you understand?"

"Yes, of course." Sakura nodded affirmatively before walking away. She felt like she needed a bath and some company too. Konoha's hot springs would serve as a good place and maybe she could tell Ino to tag along with her.

* * *

"Nothing beats a hot bath."

Ino walked towards the steaming water and noticed that the place was almost deserted. "Also, with no one to bother us," she chirped happily and turned to tug Sakura towards the refreshing water. She dipped her foot into the hot liquid, relieving in the warmth it offered before releasing the white towel that covered her lean frame. Dropping the towel on the ground next to her, she dipped herself into the water and relished in the comfort it offered to her muscles.

"Come on, Forehead. Get in!" She ordered her friend whom was measuring the temperature of the water with the tip of her toes.

"Alright, just calm down, Pig." Sakura blew a hair out of her face before stripping away from the towel surrounding her feminine figure. Revealing her breasts to the eyes of her best friend unintentionally.

"You're still as flat as ever, forehead," Ino remarked rather loudly and smirked at the flushed face of Sakura.

"Shut up, Ino-pig!" Sakura huffed angrily and soaked herself in the hot water, suppressing a sudden shiver that ran down her spine. She pulled her towel with her and placed it on top of her forehead and leaned against the edge of the hot spring, feeling content as the hot water worked its magic and released the stiffiness in her sore muscles.

Finally feeling able to relax and forget about everything, she closed her eyes and enjoyed the warm water massaging her body with the occasional waves that were contributed from the moving forms in the water.

"There's something on your mind, Forehead, isn't there?" Ino stated with confidence. Her eyes shining with unhidden interest as she studied her friend's facial expression.

"What makes you say that?" Sakura dug her mouth into the water which caused bubbles to form whenever she spoke.

"Because you only come here when there's something on your mind." Ino rolled her pale blue eyes in annoyance.

Sakura's eyes dropped a little, feeling a little put off that she was found out like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar. She couldn't deny that she wanted some company but that didn't mean that she desired to talk about what was going through her mind.

But knowing Ino, she wouldn't drop the subject until she had all of your cards put on the table for her to see. Maybe she made a mistake when she sought Ino out of all people to give her some company and spend some leisure time with her?

Sakura sighed heavily which resulted in creating more bubbles. She peered at her friend and felt that she was bound to spill all the beans with nothing to keep for herself. "Do you know that Kakashi-sensei is back?" Sakura asked.

"He is?! I thought that he was dead! He was dead, right?" Ino narrowed her eyes skeptically at Sakura.

"Yeah, he was, kind of. We all thought that he was dead but then yesterday morning, he was found in front of the gate and was brought to the hospital," Sakura explained.

"So what's bothering you? Shouldn't you be happy and all?" Ino neared her pink-haired friend to stand beside her.

"I am but there's this thing inside of me that keeps telling me that something terrible is about to happen and I don't know what it is."

-

To be continued....

* * *

**Sorry for the delay.**

**~KWF~ **


	5. Everything Changes

**I Need You Tonight**

**-**

**Chapter V**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and never will.**

**Listening to: Everything Changes by Staind**

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* * *

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Kakashi's life was not exactly a pleasant memory to remember. It was always filled with regret and painful memories, the moment he turned eight, his life took a twisted turn into the worst. His father by committing the crime of suicide was the beginning to the hell that followed.

It affected his life greatly, making the rules and regulations of the shinobi his only resort as he threw himself into the book of the shinobi rules memorizing them word by word and making sure that everyone around him went through them and acted upon them.

Though he could clearly remember his teammate whom refused to abide by the rules and could easily break them without a blink of an eye. That teammate of him became his very first best friend and not soon after did he sacrifice himself to save Kakashi's own pathetic life.

For the life of him, Kakashi didn't understand the reason behind his friend's actions. He's the one who deserved to die not the young Uchiha but it was far too late to do otherwise. Sure, the impact forced the crumpled barriers to surround his heart hastily in a more efficient way which bore no flaws.

He began to shrink back into his own made shell and started viewing everyone as unnecessary tools that only gave more pain than joy. Until his other teammate; his female teammate managed to sneak into his barrier all the way to his heart; accommodating a small space in it.

Kakashi didn't seem to realize as his heart slowly started softening and leaning towards her. He could swear that she was the only person whom made him smile genuinely again whenever she said or did anything funny.

But he awoke from that wonderful dream to discover the cruel reality of life pressing against his chest, suffocating him and depriving him of the taste of happiness. He stood in her funeral, wishing that he was the one under the dirt and not her.

Joining the ANBU deemed his life worthy once again because he could feel himself useful again, even if it's at the cost of his mentality, it was all worthwhile for his village. No longer after that, his sensei died, leaving him alone in that world to suffer with no one to ease his pains.

Taking every S-class mission available and every un-rated mission seemed the only reasonable way to distract his mind off the heart-wrenching memories. However, that only resulted him in visiting the only place he hated the most; the _hospital_.

So now there he was, lying on the not-too-smooth white bed with nothing to do. His head resting on the thankfully-soft pillow, his hair sprawled out in every possible angle. He didn't complain though, his silver hair was naturally disarrayed and since he couldn't do anything about it, he decided to leave it as it was.

Why waste the effort?

The costume smell of the hospital; the smell of the anesthetic, clung in the air like an annoying perfume, never ceasing down to spare his highly keen nose of its tingling smell. He would heave a sigh in annoyance once and awhile but other than that he couldn't do anything.

And what made matters worse, was that his mask was gone. So he was sleeping in that uncomfortable hospital bed, face uncovered and completely naked under the prying eyes of other people. He felt quite violated and he made a mental note to emphasize on the fact that his mask was not to be removed next time he visited tat place. _If…_

Deeming that it was time for him to open his charcoal gray eye, the only thing that came into his vision was the color of white. He focused his vision and stared at the white ceiling above him with mild interest. Not even one black spot in the ceiling to at least entertain him and take his mind off his pitiful state.

He would never complain though, not now at least. He was quite happy and content for being back in his village after so long. He just wished that the blonde Hokage wouldn't bomber him with questions the minute she noticed that he's awake.

Even _he_ needed some rest from time to time.

The creaking noise that the door's hinges produced gave off the person's entrance.

"How are you feeling, Kakashi?" After a few seconds of the person's entrance, the familiar voice of the blonde Godaime reached his ears.

He hastily closed his eyes, trying to play being asleep, he wasn't ready just yet to answer her questions and even if her questions were pretty simple and only concerned his health. He knew one way or another, she was going to make him spit everything out whether he liked it or not. That woman was scary and his former student; Sakura, was turning to be like her.

"I know that you're not asleep so quit your act," she ordered his with an amused smile on her face.

Kakashi cracked his single normal eye open and stared at her with a sheepish smile on his face. He attempted to draw his hand and rub the back of his neck out of habit but discovered that, he couldn't so much as move even a finger without wincing in pain.

He looked at her questioningly and she only shrugged in response.

"You had a surgery." She walked towards the chair situated next to his bed. His eyes never leaving her as she moved across the room.

"A surgery?" He echoed incredulously with narrowed eyes.

"Exactly," she replied back.

"Ah."

"You never answered; how are you feeling, Kakashi?" She repeated her question again with an edge of impatience that time.

"Other than I feel useless without the use of hands, I'm fine," he replied back, his voice lacing with sarcasm.

Tsunade could only roll her eyes at him before a small smile tugged at the corners of her lips. It didn't go unnoticed by the copy nin's keen eye, feeling relief float in his chest at seeing the familiar soft smile, he heaved a small sigh.

"I'm glad that you're finally back, Kakashi." The almond-eyed woman's features softened, radiating the relief and happiness she felt. It wasn't everyday that Kakashi got to see her looking at him like that, so he took his time in carving that moment into the depths of his mind.

"I wouldn't have it any other way, Tsunade-sama." He flashed her, a small smile before trying as much as he could to bury his face under the covers of his bed. But that was futile, he discovered.

A comfortable silence enveloped them for a few minutes before the inevitable came and the basket full of questions presented itself.

"Enough with the greetings. What were you doing those past five years?" She asked him incredulously, furrowing her perfect blond eyebrows.

"You know, the usual; trying to catch up on some light reading, making sure that I don't miss any critical points in Icha Icha." He shrugged his shoulders incoherently as if the matter wasn't such a big deal. He had only been gone for five years, which wasn't such a long time. _Yeah right._

"A very interesting way to spend five whole years. You didn't miss the line in your book which said; get your ass right back here, now did you?" Tsunade grounded out. Trying to maintain her patience was getting to be quite a difficult job. First, the Kyuupi container and now his scarecrow sensei, perfect.

She really needed to give herself some credit for being able to keep her temper in check even though she's practically surrounded by idiots. A bottle of sake might do the trick.

"Hm...No, I don't think I saw that one line. 'Must have missed it." He tried to imitate the role of someone deep in thought, if he only could use one of his hands and rub his chin in a thinking manner, his act would be flawless.

"Kakashi!" The blonde woman hissed, glaring at him haughtily, all the affection that was only seconds gracing her beautiful features was wiped clean off her face, replacing it a very scary and promising of pain glare.

The silver-haired man heaved a sigh, admitting his defeat in prolonging the interrogation he would be put through by the Hokage herself.

"On other thought, I think that I do remember reading that one line far too many times." His lone normal gray eye was locked with Tsunade's own almond eyes. His gaze intense and never betraying the years of pain and torture he'd experienced. They were hollow and glassy.

Looking at his eye was like looking at herself in the mirror, Tsunade thought as she put all of her effort into trying to read through his well-put impassive mask. All of the nonchalant exchanges between the two were thrown to the darkest corner while an air of seriousness impeded itself upon them.

Deciding to break the eye contact first, Kakashi sighed audibly for the umpteenth, closing his natural eye in the process before reopening it with a more reclined look.

"What do you want to know, Hokage-sama?" His voice was back to being lazy and laid-back as usual, his eye was droopy and about to fall shut but Tsunade didn't gave much attention to it since he always looked as bored like that.

"Where were you those past five years?" She inquired, keeping her voice calm.

"I don't remember much but I discovered that I was in one of Orochimaru's hideouts," he admitted. Even though those were a very tough and painful times to remember, he knew that he had a duty to do and that was: to report all the things that he had been subjected to since his disappearance.

"So you weren't in some other shinobi village," she stated more than asked.

"Anything would've been better than the place I had been in. But no, I wasn't in any other village." Kakashi felt inclined to answer.

"What happened to you, Kakashi?" Tsunade asked worriedly, picking up on the grim mood that surrounded the silver-haired jounin.

"I'm guessing that it's not a question but an order?" He looked at her to confirm his thoughts.

Tsunade nodded but didn't utter a word as she waited for him to continue. Her brows were knitted together in aggravation at her former hideous teammate.

Kakashi took her gesture as a prompt sort of way so he started.

"_I see that you're awake, Kakashi-kun."_

_A familiar voice rang throughout the cold room. The silver-haired jounin cringed as he realized who the owner of the voice was. He would never forget that exact person; he was the nightmare of many people; both civilians and shinobi._

_A snake would hiss in glory and joy whenever it heard that person talk, Kakashi noted. Though again, that person was already a snake-like-human kind of thing, it was safe to say that Kakashi didn't know what to think of him._

_His blood ran cold and the hairs on the back of his neck stood, the moment he felt the contact of skin against his own. He was never a fan of physical contact and that's why he tried to keep his distance away from others, unless it was absolute but he still tried to limit the skin contact even when having sex._

_However, that was on a completely different scale, that didn't even comprehend the feeling he was experiencing from the simple touch of the snake-Sennin. It was cold and chilling in its own special way. The feeling the silver-haired man was going through was the same exact one he'd experienced back in the Chuunin exam when Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke had been at the age of twelve._

_A cold bead of sweat trailed down his forehead in a taunting way, waiting for someone to wipe it away. Kakashi opened his eyes at last to look at the face of his capturer. The face of the person he dreaded came into his line of vision with a sick smile on his face._

_His eyes widened for a fraction of a second before he controlled his shock and tried to act in a calm collective way. He stared back at the person with a secured scowl on his face._

"_What have you done to yourself?" Kakashi's voice was devoid from emotions. It was barely a whisper considering the state he was in; injured badly and with a suspicion that he's suffering from blood loss. He pated himself on the back for managing to keep his voice strong despite of his almost-deadly injuries._

_Receiving only a wicked smile, he dropped the subject and didn't further press on. No matter how much he would ask, he knew that he would never get an answer unless the strange man himself decided to grace him with one._

_He noticed that the Orochimaru-Kabuto hybrid was so close to him and staring right at his uncovered sharingan with awe and appreciation. He decided to test his movements and know the limit to them, so he pulled at his chains roughly, receiving a wicked laugh from the man before him._

"_You can't escape this prison, Kakashi-kun," the Orochimaru-Kabuto hybrid admonished with the creepy smile plastered on his face._

_Nevertheless, Kakashi didn't stop trying to test the chains' capability and learn the weak points in them. His mind was running a mile as he conjured many ways to escape the hell pit and spare himself the all-too-predictable upcoming pain, both physically and mentally._

_The half-Sennin didn't say anything as he watched in amusement the copy ninja trying to figure out a way to run away. His one yellow iris and black one strayed from the crimson sharingan to the rest of Kakashi's face, memorizing every detail since it was finally unveiled to his hungry-for-power eyes._

_He had to know the face of his new vessel and make sure that it was worthy of his royal glory and power. Feeling satisfied with his face, his eyes roamed over his body, studying every part with keen interest._

_Kakashi felt the eyes of the hybrid observing his body and he felt violated. He almost wanted to cover himself and turn away, he felt like he was a piece of meat being checked by the butcher for anything bad before he decided to cut it._

_He swallowed back nervously and tugged at his restraints harder. _

"_Very Interesting body shape, it would do just fine for my taste." The man with two faces licked his lips eagerly, before ever so slowly, letting his tongue run over Kakashi's face; starting from his jaw line up to his cheek._

_Kakashi tried to suppress a shudder of disgust when he felt the muscled piece of meat touch his face. He averted his sight to look at anything but at the crazy man before him, trying to push out the trail of saliva that was being left behind the running tongue. His knuckles turned white from clutching the chains far too tight, his muscles tensed and his stomach flipped unpleasantly._

_With a final stroke, the Orochimaru-Kabuto combination felt satiated enough to pull back the offending object into their mouth where it truly belonged, no longer terrorizing the poor Hatake. Kakashi let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, the moment he noticed the twisted Sennin moving away from him and starting to walk towards the exit of the prison._

_The bars of the gate clicked shut with the sound of metal clashing against metal. The creepy creature went out of sight and finally Kakashi felt that he could breathe normally. He panted for air as the tension that surrounded them finally lifted up._

_Controlling his breathing, he looked around him and surveyed the place he was held in. He noted that he was accommodating a prison cell just like any other one he'd been in back in the old days. The smell of the trapped and slightly rotten air teased his nostrils and he put everything he had into stopping himself from throwing up._

_Something used to be in that place, and by the looks of it, that thing died in there too. The smell proved it all. Kakashi could only wonder about his end, would it be the same at that thing that used to be in there?_

_He heaved a small sigh before resuming his observations. His cell was like any normal cell, with metal bars and stone-made walls with some holes here and there, allowing drops of what he hoped to be water and not some other sick experiment. The ceiling was dark and he couldn't see it clearly because of the poor lighting in the place. He could barely make out the things around him._

_He decided not to use his sharingan in observing the place so as to reserve as much chakra as possible. He would need all the energy he could get, if he wanted to get out of that place in one piece. He only hoped that luck would be on his side just that time._

_The metal chains that restrained him weren't ordinary; they were chakra suppressors for his misfortune. They were buried deep into the wall and no matter how hard he pulled; he couldn't get them to budge even for a little. _

_They were above his head so naturally, his hands were hanging above his head too. He was sitting on the floor and leaning against the cold surface of the wall behind him, his legs were stretched in front of him with matching chains on his ankles. _

"_Damn it," he cursed softly before resting his head against the hard surface of the stony wall, staring up at the dark ceiling of his prison cell. He should have used his sharingan on that crazy Sennin, but he knew that if he had done that, he would have died from chakra deprivation. He was low on chakra supply and the freaky Sennin had to have known that, or else he wouldn't have come into his prison cell so confident of himself._

_He sighed and cursed a little bit more before closing his eyes, what did he want from him? He had lost his blood line limit forever and he was back to being his old self again, so what was the deal? If only he had died from his fall off the cliff, things would have been much better._

_A loud creak sliced through the silence, alerting Kakashi to the unwanted visitors. Hurried footsteps were heard and low orders were whispered between the masked men. They were all huge in size, Kakashi noted as his muscles tensed. _

_His keen hearing picked up on what they were saying as he listened attentively to every word they mumbled. They didn't know that his hearing was abnormal and that was in his advantage, not that they actually needed to know._

"_Be careful, this is the copy ninja we're dealing with here. You take care of the left leg," a man about a foot taller than Kakashi mumbled while eying the silver-haired man suspiciously._

"_Yes boss," a man that was definitely smaller than Kakashi said._

"_I'll take care of his right leg," another man said nervously. His hands were getting sweatier out of nervousness. _

"_Then that leaves to me his left one," a man with blue eyes said before averting his sight to look at the shinobi in question. _

_Maybe that was his chance to get away, if he could beat up those guys. They couldn't be a match for him, they looked like inexperienced thugs. He suspected that they might give him some trouble considering the fact that he was chakra-less and restrained but that could be fixed if they only came closer to him._

_Kakashi acted calm as he watched them gingerly getting closer to him. By the looks of it, they were nervous and hesitant about freeing him from his chains and taking him to wherever they were told to take him. If luck was on his side then that was going to be a piece of a cake._

_He waited until they got close enough for his convenience. They started undoing his restrains, though, still keeping the chakra suppressors on. But that was no problem at all. He could bet that he would be able to take them out even without his chakra and in his injured bodily state._

_Right hand free._

_Left hand free._

_He didn't move or make any suspicious movements that would alert them to his intentions. They were starting to get comfortable and confident around him and he wasn't about to waste his chance just by impulsiveness on his part._

_Left ankle free._

_Right ankle free._

_They pulled back to observe their work. _

_A second later, his left leg made contact with the chin of the hugest person whom apparently was the leader since he was the one who started giving orders first. Before the other men could react, his right fist jammed into the face of another one, breaking a few teeth in the process._

_He did a round kick and caught one of them in his gut, rendering him immobile from the striking pain. The last of the men stood shocked in his place, taking a few steps back._

"_Y-you're a d-demon," the man stuttered, his voice showing the fear and dread he was feeling. Kakashi turned to face the man with a cold look on his face before he, in the blink of an eye- stood before him and kneed him hard, making the frightened man stumble on his feet and finally fall on the ground with a thud._

"_A demon, huh?" Kakashi wondered as he neared one of the fallen men on the ground. He took the kunai hostler and weapons' pouch, secured them in their usual places, he started walking towards the door of his cell._

Knock....Knock.

Kakashi looked up to see the new visitor. Pink hair appeared in his line of view, and he secretly thanked god for Sakura's interference. He didn't wish to enter the next part of his story just yet. It had been the most horrified part in his past years.

Only remembering the face of the creature that was once two separate humans, made him shudder in disgust. Never in his life had he seen or heard of something like that. Was that some kind of forbidden jutsu developed by Orochimaru or was it some twisted medicine that Kabuto had created? He didn't know and he didn't even want to think about that.

"Kakashi, you're awake!" Sakura skipped to stand beside the occupied bed, beaming with happiness and while holding some medical books close to her chest. Kakashi smiled at her, he knew that his face was uncovered but since she saw him before, he didn't mind it all that much.

Sakura was dazzled by the sincere smile her former sensei gave her and felt inclined to allow her eyes to linger a bit too long on his lips as they formed the breathtaking smile. Kakashi noticed that and couldn't help but smirk inwardly.

"Don't let it ruffle your feathers, Hatake," Tsunade noticed that and smirked before fixing her gaze on her apprentice. "What do you want, Sakura?" She asked, feeling a little bit annoyed. After all, she interrupted the story of her sensei's disappearance and just when Kakashi was getting to the good part.

"I-I just wanted to check on Kakashi," Sakura stammered, fixing her gaze on the floor and suddenly finding it more interesting. Was that a small hole in the marble of the floor?

The blonde-busted woman didn't say anything; she figured that her apprentice would come there just to check on her former sensei. The pink-haired woman had grown attached to the man in question in a surprisingly very short amount of time.

She sighed inwardly and delayed the rest of the story for another time. Kakashi wasn't going anywhere so why deny Sakura the chance of checking on the silver-haired jounin? But before she left, she had to make sure of something.

"Kakashi, try moving your fingers," Tsunade ordered him and waited as he strained himself. He winced a little before his fingers twitched. "Now try moving your hands."

He looked at her questioningly but then shrugged and moved his hands normally. It hurt a little bit when he attempted to twitch his fingers because of being stiff but after that, everything was fine and nothing hurt.

"It worked!" Sakura jumped in happiness while Tsunade had a huge smile gracing her full lips. Kakashi looked confusedly from Sakura to Tsunade and then back to Sakura. It worked? What was that supposed to mean?

The umber-eyed woman noticed his confusion and decided to spare him. "Your nerves were badly injured and Sakura over here is the one who healed you. She used a forbidden jutsu to make sure that you can use your hands again," she explained.

"You did that?" Feeling at a loss of words, he couldn't help the swell of pride in his chest. Though, he knew that he had no right to feel such thing since clearly Tsunade was the one who taught his former student everything, from fighting techniques to medical and forbidden jutsus.

"Thank you, Sakura." He smiled warmly at her, appreciating her efforts. After all, a ninja without the use of his hands was nothing.

"That's the least I could do." Inwardly, she wasn't as calm as she was on the outside; she was jumping around restlessly, yelling and laughing out in happiness. She felt a foreign feeling in the pit of her stomach, something she hadn't felt in a very long time. Butterflies jumped around, making her all giddy.

"Sakura hasn't left your side since you came into the hospital, she's the one who discovered this injury," Tsunade added with a smile.

"That's why she's my favorite student," the silver-haired man beamed whilst looking at Sakura, who in turn, changed into a very interesting shade of red, contrasting nicely with her pink hair.

"Sakura, are you ok? You look like you have a fever." Kakashi pulled himself into a sitting position, reaching with his hand to touch her forehead. He knew the reason behind Sakura's interesting shade of red but he wanted to have some fun. A little teasing would never hurt, right?

"Hm...You don't have a fever," he mused then looked at Tsunade with a smirk on his face, "there's only one illness I could think of; I guess you're having a serious case of embarrassment. Could the reason by any chance be me?" Kakashi almost laughed at the view of Sakura's stiff form.

A moment later, she was fuming with anger and embarrassment. "And let me guess, you're having a serious case of arrogance that really needs to be checked by a doctor or you will blow up from overload of self-esteem," Sakura retorted before moving closer and slamming one of her medical books on his head, making him mutter curses under his breath.

Tsunade laughed at the brief exchange between the two. "Ok, before you two love-birds decide to throw on a show, there's something that you should know Kakashi; under no circumstances are you allowed to let anyone heal you besides Sakura," she warned him with an edge of seriousness.

The two huffed in anger before the copy ninja processed what the Hokage said. "Why?" He asked curiously.

"Because the forbidden jutsu I had Sakura use, has a side-effect. If you allow anyone else's chakra to enter your chakra stream, you'll suffer from a chakra circulation failure. Only Sakura is allowed to heal you because she's the one who used the jutsu on you," Tsunade replied.

"I see. Looks like you're stuck with me." Kakashi raised one suggestive eyebrow at Sakura whom stomped her foot impatiently on the floor.

"Thanks for pointing that out, genius," she huffed angrily and turned her face away from him.

"Admitting that I'm a genius, one for me, zero for you," the silver-haired man mumbled, acting like he was writing on some invisible paper on his palm. He smirked when he saw her boiling with anger and just barely able to restrain herself from hitting him.

For some unknown reason, he suddenly felt the need to tease her. She was just too easy to tease and being the ever good shinobi, he would never let a chance slip without taking advantage of it. So he was only doing it on instinct nothing more. Therefore, if anyone wanted to blame him, he should blame his first instinct and not him, he had nothing to do with it, honestly.

"Since when did you start counting points?" Sakura rested her hands on her hips, in a stance Kakashi had gotten well-known with. She would always stand like that whenever she scolded one of the boys and to say he had seen it before would be mildly putting it. He'd had it carved in his memory from multiple times of seeing it.

"Since now," Kakashi replied happily. He tried to give her his most innocent and convincing smile but that didn't help the situation.

Sakura noted that the smile he gave her didn't reach his eyes like it usually did back in the old days but she shrugged that thought off. Hell, for all she cared right now, let him go kill himself and she wouldn't even blink.

"Argh! You're so frustrating and annoying!" She threw her hands up before crossing them on top of her chest defiantly and shooting him her hardest glare she could manage.

"Another point for me," Kakashi muttered under his breath, distracted by writing the invisible scores on his invisible sheet of paper. Sakura glared at him before she reached forward and grabbed the invisible paper, crumbling it and acting as if she was throwing it outside the window.

"Hey, I was writing," he whined childishly and pouted slightly.

"Well, now there's nothing for you to write on so since I don't have time to waste _talking_ with you, I'll be going to finish my researches." She turned her face away from him and bowed slightly to her mentor before walking out the door, holding her chin high and not sparing her former sensei a glance.

"Did you really have to do that?" Tsunade sighed, massaging her temple, already feeling an upcoming headache.

"Couldn't resist." He smiled softly before taking a deep breath and falling back on the mattress. Resting his head on the smooth surface of his pillow. He felt tired all of the sudden and he blamed it all on his bad body state.

"Are you ok?" The blonde Godaime asked worriedly, furrowing her eyebrows a little.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

Tsunade moved to stand and head to the door before she suddenly remembered something important. She looked back at Kakashi and said, "You said that Kabuto and Orochimaru shared the same body, each having one side of face, right?"

The silver-haired man nodded, not sure where that was going but he didn't show his confusion. He kept his laid-back lazy attitude on with his droopy eyes.

"That's weird, when Sakura reported that she met Kabuto the other day, she didn't mention anything about seeing half of Orochimaru's face," she mused, looking at Kakashi questioningly. He only narrowed his eyes but didn't say anything.

Tsunade didn't press further for information and left to finish the paperwork waiting for her in the office. She didn't need Shizune coming and pestering her about the paperwork.

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To be continued.....

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I hope that you've enjoyed this chapter.

**Till the next chapter.**

**Reviews are appreciated!**

**~KWF~**


	6. Tangled up in Me Part 1

** I Need You Tonight**

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**Chapter VI – Part 1**

**Listening to: Skye Sweetnam - Tangled up in me**

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Everything returned back to usual, walking lazily like this in the busy streets of Konoha, his masked face buried in the orange-jacketed book. Catching up on his reading without paying attention to the disgruntled looks he would occasionally receive from women and old people. He didn't care about what they thought; let them think what they want, because Hatake Kakashi was back in Konoha.

He would've thought that they would welcome him with open arms but apparently, once they saw the familiar red circle with the slash on the orange book, they forgot that he was presumed dead. Well, at least that's what the civilians only thought, however, what the shinobi thought was a totally different story.

Every time he would pass one of the newly-assigned jounin, they would come and shake his hand and talk about how much pleasure they had in meeting him. His friends were a totally different case, they arranged a home-welcoming party for him, or maybe Naruto and Genma were the ones doing that?

But he was pleased nonetheless. He would always think about how much people would miss him if he were to die and look at his luck; he got to know how much they cared about him. Especially his students, his heart warmed a little at the memory of Sakura hugging him when he first woke up. She was so emotional that she reminded him of her 12-years-old days. Yet, he discovered that she was nothing like the love-struck teenager she was in the old days.

He could honestly say that she had grown into a wonderful woman and after knowing that she had been the person in charge of his operation, pride had swelled in his chest. He smiled a little in memory and hid his face well behind his porn book.

One of his hands was stuffed deeply into his pants' pockets while the other was holding his book so closely. Those past few years were like a nightmare comparing to the present. He really didn't think that he was going to see his beloved village ever again. But there he was again in his village. He sighed in content before looking up at the sea-blue sky.

A few white fluffy clouds hung around here and there. One of them actually reminded him of Naruto, with his wild hair sticking out in every possible angle. An amused smile graced his masked lips, he inhaled deeply in remembrance; the earthy moisturized scent with the rich smell of the green leaves and trees around him mingled perfectly with the strong smell of food being cooked in the restaurants, just the way he liked it.

He turned his attention to the five carved faces looking back at him; he smiled happily as he allowed his gaze to give each one of the Hokage's faces the attention it deserved.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto shouted loudly as he ran to catch up to his sensei. The same idiotic smile plastered firmly on his lips, he scratched the back of his neck out of habit. He realized how much he missed calling his sensei's name, it felt right.

"Don't you think it's about time for you to stop calling me 'sensei'?" Kakashi suggested. He was starting to grow annoyed from constantly being called 'sensei'. It made him feel strangely old and he wasn't. He already had his fair share of being miscalled several times in the past; especially when some elderly woman thought him to be the father of Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke back when they were team seven. It was embarrassing and unfortunately to him, he didn't get to hear the end of it from his students back then.

"I don't know. What do you want me to call you instead?" Naruto asked confusedly.

"You can go for 'Kakashi-senpai' since we're both jounin now or you could call me 'Kakashi' only."

"Nah, I think I prefer 'sensei' better," the blond man dismissed with a shake of his hand. Kakashi's shoulders slumped in defeat, sighing heavily, he started resuming his walk.

"Hey wait up!" Naruto whined while running to walk beside his former sensei. "How are you now?" He asked worriedly.

"Never been better," Kakashi said absentmindedly while flipping another page of his well-worn orange book.

"Great then, don't be late tonight, sensei!" Naruto exclaimed before jogging off to god only knew where.

Kakashi took a deep slow breath. He felt old, really and he wasn't in the mood to attend his home-welcoming party. There would be drinking and lots of amounts of alcohol, and knowing Gai and the rest of his gang, they would most probably challenge him into a drinking contest and he wouldn't be able to refuse. He could never turn down a challenge, now could he?

He looked up at the sky for some sort of miracle to save him but nothing happened. The lone disc of the sun glared back at him while the clouds strayed away, depriving him from the shield against the sun's heat.

Slowly, his feet started dragging him to one of his favorite spots. As he neared the training grounds, he found himself standing before a-very-familiar place. Training ground three. This place witnessed a lot of generations. He made his way towards his favorite tree and sat underneath its shade. Leaning his back against the hard wood of the tree, he relished in the beautiful weather. The tree's shade offered a very welcomed protection from the glare of the sun and with the wind picking up a little once and awhile, it provided the perfect place for continuing his reading.

Just when he was about to turn his orange book open to a specific page, the familiar hair of his female student came into view. He groaned inwardly but didn't say anything. Her wrath could be quite dangerous and he didn't feel like being on the receiving end of it at that moment.

So he did what he was best at; ignoring her until she got bored and left him alone to enjoy his book.

"Good morning, Kakashi," Sakura said cheerfully. She bent down to be in-eye-level with the silver-haired man.

"Good morning, Sakura." He had to be polite or he would trigger an invisible button and unleash her devastating anger.

"How are you feeling today?" She asked as made herself comfortable sitting next to him under the tree's silhouette. She tentatively started inching closer to him, her eyes focusing on the orange book in Kakashi's hands trying to see why Icha Icha was so captivating.

Kakashi noticed what she was doing and moved the book away from her sight without making it obvious that he knew what she was thinking about. She huffed angrily and pouted her lips at him. "C'mon Kakashi! Show me what's so good about this book!" She pleaded.

She wasn't trying to annoy him but really, curiosity got the best of her. She had tried a lot of times before to purchase a copy of Icha Icha Paradise and fortunately she did. But of course with the help of her blonde-haired friend, after all she would never go into a store and demand a copy of the porn book; she would melt in embarrassment before doing that.

The copy was in her apartment but the problem was that she never actually had the necessary time to finish reading the smut book, let alone open it. It was still in its bag and was left untouched until this day. So seeing Kakashi enjoy reading it, started to get to her and fuel her curiosity again.

"You're too young," he said dismissively with a shake of his hand.

"I'm not! I'm twenty-one for the love of god, what can this book contain that I'm not allowed to read?" She asked impatiently while crossing her arms over her chest stubbornly.

Kakashi stared at her for a long hard moment before echoing back, "You're twenty-one?"

"Yes!" She retorted with the same annoyed tone she used earlier.

To say that Kakashi was shocked to hear that would be an understatement. The seventeen years old Sakura he used to know had turned to be this young woman in her twenty-one. Now that he looked at her, he realized that he had missed how much she had grown.

She certainly was twenty-one especially with that body of hers. Her breasts grew in size but not too much, they were just perfect for her body and her hips were wider now, more elegant. He noticed that her hair stayed the same and didn't grow back. He saw that it was better this way and he actually liked short hair on her better than long hair.

Sakura shifted uncomfortably in her place as she tried to look anywhere but at her former teacher's appraising gaze. For some unknown reason, she was dying to know what he thought of her now. She was also nervous and anxious about what he would tell her next. And to say the truth, she had never had any man looking at her with the same intensity in Kakashi's eyes. She swallowed nervously and put one stray lock of pink hair behind her ear.

"You _are_ twenty-one," he concluded after much observation. Sakura had indeed grown to be a beautiful woman. Her chest proved that she was not the little 12 years old girl he had first taught, and her body came out to shape the perfect hour-glass look.

His appraising gaze swept over her whole frame, he sure had missed a lot when he had gone missing for the past five years. His student…no his _former_ student had changed quite a lot since the last time he had seen her when he saved her from falling down off the cliff that fateful day. Knowing her, she had to have been beating herself up because of that and placed all the blame on her.

He sighed inwardly, Sakura resembled him slightly when it came to carrying the heavy burdens of guilt, and that was not good. He noticed her shifting under his gaze uncomfortably, fidgeting around with the hem of her beige skirt while worrying her bottom lip and trying to look at anything but him. He noticed a light shade of red tainting her cheeks and he realized that he had been staring at her up and down for quite some time now.

He made a noise in his throat before rubbing the back of his head nervously. "I'm sorry, it's just I didn't realize that you have grown so much," he said with a sincerely apologetic smile. Even though Sakura wasn't able to see his mouth, the crease of his lone eye showed that he was smiling sheepishly at her.

"For a minute there, you scared me, don't do that again," she scolded half-heartedly with a smile of her own. It'd been a while since she had a casual chat with the silver-haired man and she had missed talking to him a lot. Even if most of the time, she did the talking, she still enjoyed having someone as understanding as Kakashi listening to her. Especially, when she went on and on about how Naruto was sometimes so stupid or how Sai was intolerable, he still had listened.

Even back in the old days, when she used to talk about Sasuke and about bringing him back to Konoha, he would always nod with a smile.

Kakashi chuckled softly when Sakura hit him lightly on the shoulder as to emphasize her words. He felt so carefree around her and he honestly didn't know why. Maybe it was due to the bond he now shared with her after having been healed by her inner chakra. Not that it actually mattered to him, he was just glad to be back home, and also out of the hospital, honestly that place reeked of the smell of anesthetic and that smell made his nose twitch in annoyance.

"Oh by the way, don't be late tonight; you're the main guest so you have to at _least_ try and show up early," Sakura stated as a matter of a fact.

"I don't know why everyone keeps telling me not to be late, first Naruto and now you. What did I ever do to earn such a privilege?" Kakashi sighed and let his shoulders slump a little in defeat.

Sakura merely looked at him with a blank face before she narrowed her emerald eyes at him incredulously. "What did you do? You were late for every meeting we used to have since day one, that's what you did, Kakashi," she informed him with a 'you-know-better-than-to-ask' look.

A sweat drop trailed down his forehead to disappear behind his mask, he slowly got up from his sitting position to stretch his hands above his head. He looked down at her curious green eyes before extending his hand towards her. "'You coming?" He waited for her to grab his hand. When she finally did, he pulled her up to stand on her own.

"Where to?" She asked curiously. She had never so openly been invited by her former sensei to go anywhere with him. Usually, she had been the one to find him and start talking for hours no end before he would polity excuse himself, saying that he had other matters that needed to be attended. She could take it as her cue to also leave him alone but she would do it with a happy and content face; because someone was there for her and take the role of the listener to her life stories without interrupting her.

Naruto would sympathize with her and his happy face would fall apart, his toothy grin would turn into a sad smile and his sparkling blue eyes would lose a little of their brightness. Sasuke hadn't been there but if he had been, he would tell her to shut up and stop bothering him with her stupid problems. Sai would keep on giving her his weird smile while Tsunade would reprimand her about how she was being a pathetic person.

Kakashi was the only one who could understand her best. Therefore, losing him had been the biggest blow to her heart, one that had been even bigger than losing Sasuke. She suddenly realized that a part of her didn't care about Sasuke as she thought it did and that part actually longed for Kakashi's company more than anyone else's.

Her eyes slowly widened but she tried to hide her shock from the curious gaze her former sensei fixed on her. He cocked his head to the side and waited for her to say anything that would explain why her form went rigid all of the sudden but when he received none, he sighed inwardly and shrugged it off. He had never understood women, so why would Sakura be an exception?

Kakashi released her hand when he noted that he still had it in his and quickly cleared his throat for the lack of anything to do. He averted his sight to look at the blue sky and fluffy white clouds, thinking that it would serve as a little distraction for the time being.

"Well, to have lunch of course," he said after a few minutes of standing in silence. Lunch was the best thing to do and ramen was the best option he had. Naruto would be in Ichiraku Ramen, he was sure of it. He would drop Sakura there, stay for awhile and eat lunch with them before leaving Naruto to take care of the bill. A perfect plan, if you asked him.

"Let me guess, ramen because you will let Naruto take care of your bill," Sakura raised a suggestive eyebrow, all previous thoughts forgotten now and left at the far corner in the back of her mind. She would have enough time to dwell on them at later more appropriate time instead of spacing out like an idiot.

"You know me all too well," Kakashi smirked slightly before turning on his heels and starting his journey to the ramen stand.

"Not as much as I'd like," she whispered absentmindedly before following him.

"Hm…did you say anything?" Kakashi turned back and raised one delicate silver eyebrow at her questioningly.

"Uh...no, nothing," Sakura stuttered a little, feeling embarrassed for being caught. A light blush tainted her cheeks and she turned her face away from him to hide her traitorous face. She cleared her throat and took a deep calming breath before looking back at him with a smile.

"Are you sure you're ok?" He furrowed his eyebrows a little and allowed his eyes to study her from head to toe. Unknowingly to him, Sakura was flushing a deep color of red for being looked at like that by her sensei.

Ok, so she wasn't a virgin but that didn't mean that someone actually stared at her like that. And just for the record, Sasuke never looked at her like that even when they had sex. It was such a shame really.

"Yes!" She assured him and walked past him hurriedly before looking back at him and asking, "Coming?"

"Sure," Kakashi mumbled, his charcoal eye securitizing her every move. He didn't believe her, that much was to be said but he didn't like to press on matters that didn't relate to him in any way so he let it drop for now.

Sakura could feel Kakashi's lone eye on her back. She tried to keep her cool and act nonchalant but honestly, she couldn't concentrate on anything when she knew that there was someone watching her every move. Maybe leading the way to Ichiraku Ramen was a bad idea; she should've let him walk in the front instead of her.

She bit her lower lip out of nervousness and frustration, she would have to deal with that feeling for now and act as calm as possible.

XXXX

The sound of a key turning and unlocking the closed door echoed through the empty apartment. Sakura pushed the door open and entered her place called home; she held in her hand a small stack of mail and was going through them quickly.

She closed the door with the heel of her foot and continued towards her kitchen, placing the stack of mail on her wooden table, she went to grab a glass from the cabinets. She filled the glass with the cold refreshing liquid and gulped it in one shot. She sighed contently before putting the glass aside and going back towards her mail.

The mail was always the same, bills and bills and more bills. It was nothing to look forward to seeing but she knew that she had to face reality some day and she realized that she had to take on at least an A-rank mission or a S-rank mission to be able to pay it off in time. She didn't feel like losing her apartment and belongings because of trivial things such as bills.

Her eyes turned attentive as she saw something that caught her attention. There was a letter from the hospital among the growing pile of bills, she picked it up and tore the envelope open with hurriedness. There was a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that kept pestering her and she hated it.

She gulped nervously as she finally took the letter out and read it. Furrowing her eyebrows slightly, she didn't recall asking for Kakashi's blood tests and she briefly wondered if maybe Tsunade did so. She brushed it off and decided to dwell on it in some other time when she's actually not feeling tired. She skimmed through the contents of the letter before putting it aside. Her eyebrows were knitted in a deep frown.

The letter talked about two different blood tests. One before the surgery she did and the other one after. But what made her confused was the fact that there was something different in both blood tests. The first one explained that a strange substance was discovered in Kakashi's blood stream while the other showed that he was perfectly fine and that there was nothing wrong with him.

She wracked her brain for an explanation but found none. She had never heard of such a thing happening. Getting something in one's blood stream and the next day showing nothing was a bit strange. And if she wanted to think on a higher scale, even poison could never do such a thing or act that way because sooner or later the effects would show on the victim.

She sighed heavily and ran a hand through her pink hair. Feeling a headache building up in her head, she decided on a shower before going to the pub. After all, Ino made sure and emphasized that she was dropping by before they could go together to the pub.

Sakura sensed something bad from her blonde friend's idea. Having Ino come to her home before a party proved to be a very bad idea in more than one occasion but she couldn't say 'no' to her even if she wanted to. Ino could be sometimes a real pain in the ass when she wanted to. And Sakura didn't feel like being on the receiving end of it.

She trudged through her apartment towards her bedroom, a quick shower in mind. Stripping off her clothes on her way to her closet, she threw them on a small pile of growing laundry. She paid the pile of dirty clothes no mind as she thought that she would do it later and later meant after a very long time. Maybe when she had no more clean clothes?

Don't get her wrong, Sakura was a very organized and clean person but when it came down to her home, she just was not…let's say, the type to waste precious time on cleaning instead of studying and learning more Jutsus.

Left in her cottony bra and panties, she grabbed her white fluffy towel from her closet and pulled a new set of clean undergarments. Having everything ready and waiting for her, for after she finished her shower, she strode towards her bathroom and closed the door. She didn't see the need in locking it as she was living alone with no one else to barge in the middle of her shower and catch her naked.

Tuning on the warm water, she started taking off the last pieces of her clothes. She unclipped her bra and stepped out of her panties and threw them in another corner in the bathroom. Tentatively, she slipped under the splashing water. She moaned in approval as the water massaged her white creamy body. Today was a tiring day.

Kakashi as she had suspected, dropped the bill on Naruto and Naruto in turn dropped it on her before running away while laughing. She felt so irritated, as the afternoon's events came back to her. Ok, she expected that kind of act to come from Kakashi but from Naruto? Kind, goofy Naruto? No; that was certainly a surprise.

She had to chase him down to teach him a lesson or two about treating a lady and some manners. And it took her one hour of constant running to catch him. Of course, he had used his Kage Bunshin Jutsu to deceive her and lose her but at the end she caught him and made him wish he had never been caught. Unconsciously, a small smile tugged at the corners of her lips. It was fun chasing him around and it proved to be a good exercise after having been working in the hospital for a long time.

She had also learned that her stamina had gone lower than before. So she had to start working out and maybe spar with anyone whenever she found some time. She didn't need to start getting weaker after going through everything.

But what infuriated her more; that after she had caught Naruto and had given him a piece of her mind, Kakashi strode casually towards them and feigned surprise and shock as if he didn't have a clue.

_The nerve of that man, I swear…_

She finished applying her shampoo to her hair and cleaning it before scrubbing her body free from all the sweat that it gained from running after her blond friend, all the while humming a small melody that she only knew. The smell of strawberry wafted throughout the bathroom and filled her nostrils in an approving fashion, causing her to inhale deeply into the beautiful scent of the fruit.

She turned off the water and stepped out of the shower. Grabbing the fluffy white towel, she started the process of drying herself. After finishing with her body, she worked on drying her hair and ridding it of the water clinging to it. Finally, after making sure that her body was dry enough, she allowed the white towel to fall on the linoleum tiles.

Standing before the mirror to inspect herself, she grunted in annoyance as she noticed that her skin was growing dry from the lack of lotion. So she took her time in pomading her lean body; carefully, so as not to forget any places and leave them undone.

She started with the curves of her breasts, slowly massaging them and kneading them until she was satisfied that they were as smooth as silk. It wasn't like someone would touch her there but she liked to keep herself ready. She remembered her first time; when she lost it to Sasuke. She thought that she truly loved him but she was shocked to know that she regretted ever giving up her virginity to him.

Even after they had had sex, he was still cold to her and it broke her heart into a million sharp pieces. She could still remember when she decided that she was no longer infatuated with the last Uchiha. But somehow, having him coming after her for some time; had weakened her defenses and made her vulnerable to him and he took his chance to be her first. She recalled him telling her that he was not capable of love and could never be able to return her love after having sex with her.

She had accepted that and had gotten off the bed to collect her clothes. All the while, muttering that she had been a fool to believe that he had changed and had actually seen her for her personality and not as a person to give birth to the future members of the Uchiha clan.

After that, they had become only friends and Naruto had been left in the dark. They didn't felt the need to tell him such intimate things but Sakura could clearly remember that she had cried when she returned to her empty bed. She had cried all of her bottled up tears until nothing had been left.

And the next day, no one suspected that she had spent the night crying not for only one man but for two; Sasuke's admission that he would never love her back and Kakashi's absence. She never knew his true value until he went away. Who would've thought that her perverted-sensei was actually _that_ important to her?

Sakura felt a bitter smile tug at the corners of her lips as she continued pomading the sweet-scented lotion to her body. After finishing her upper body, she started working on her lower part. Slowly, as if in a teasing manner, her hand applied the cool substance to her right thigh, rubbing it gently up and down before giving the same attention to her left thigh.

She started on her feet, repeating the same process until she was satisfied that all of her body was covered in the creamy lotion. She smiled contently as she praised herself and mentally patted herself on the back.

She bent down to grab her discarded towel and wrapped it around herself; all the while her back was facing the door. When she started towards the door, she took notice of the small crack letting in a stream of light. She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion; she didn't remember leaving the door slightly cracked. As a matter of a fact, she clearly remembered closing it but not locking it. She shook her head and let the matter drop, perhaps she was just too tired and she didn't close the door. Those things could happen to anyone.

She opened the door and stepped into her bedroom and what she saw made her eyes widen in shock that she feared her eyeballs would bulge out of their sockets if she opened her eyes any wider.

There, in his entire glory and laidback attitude, sat the one and only Hatake Kakashi on the chair located next to her window. Sakura didn't say anything; the cat seemed to have her tongue as she stared at the silver-haired man in her room.

She felt a torch of pure rage and agitation start to burn through her, bringing back her ability to talk.

"Kakashi…" She waited for him to acknowledge her presence. For the life of her, she could honestly say that she was trying to maintain as much self-control as she could. But it was really proving to be a difficult task considering the situation.

"Yo!" He saluted her casually with a raised hand and a crease of his lone charcoal eye.

The temperature around them seemed to drop a few degrees and the air around them was like a void hole that ached to be filled, and what's better than awkwardness to fill the void hole? Not to mention the embarrassment at being caught half naked.

"What the hell are you doing in my room?" She half hissed half shouted. This thing called control was growing harder by the minute. She closed her eyes and took a few deep calming breaths before re-opening them to reveal rage-filled emerald eyes.

Kakashi couldn't help but feel a shudder running down his spine at the intensity of her hard gaze. Maybe, he should've listened to reason and logic before coming into her room. But knowing him, when had he ever listened to such thing as logic?

One transparent sweat drop trailed down his cheek to disappear beneath his black mask. He rubbed the back of his head awkwardly while chuckling nervously. He didn't notice when Sakura started advancing towards her bed and bending down to grab some unknown object. But the first thing he saw when he stopped chuckling was the flying object aimed towards his head.

His eye widened in surprise and he ducked to avoid the flying object which he later identified as a slipper. His action only added fuel to the fire as Sakura growled angrily and threw the second slipper at him, managing to break his nose.

Kakashi grabbed his nose as he felt blood wetting his mask. He winced when his hand made contact with his broken nose and quickly moved out of the way of flying pencils. And by the look of them, they were recently sharpened.

"Get out of my room!" Sakura continued throwing more objects at him and her anger and irritation only increased when she failed to hit him again after breaking his nose. Her anger wasn't satiated with breaking his nose only. No. She wanted to trash his pretty face and make him unrecognizable.

"W-wait—S-Sa-kura….Dammit, ow---"

-

To Be Continued….

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**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

**Well, this was originally a very long chapter but I decided to cut it into two. So yes, there'll be a second part of this chapter. I'm planning a special edition so here's the deal. I'm working on two stories right now; this one and 'Breathe Your Life into Me' (A BLEACH fanfic)**

**I've published this chapter and a chapter of the BLEACH fanfic at the same time and they both have a special edition…but the thing is; you people are going to have to earn the special chapter.**

**The chapter that gets the most reviews will receive its special chapter this week and the loser will have to wait for one month before the chapter comes out. They are both written so show me how much you truly love this story.**

**~KWF~**


	7. Tangled up in Me Part 2

**I Need You Tonight**

…

**It was a tie so I had to publish both of the special chapters! You're so damn lucky.**

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**~Extra~**

…..

Sauntering around and staring at the glassy windows of the shops, Ino had one thought in mind. She knew that her pink-haired-addicted-to-work friend would wear something modest and decent which would attract the worst type of men or more precisely would catch the attention of no one. And Ino, being the good friend, would never want such a thing to happen to Sakura so she took it upon herself to buy her a new set of clothes and undergarments – just in case.

Besides, she wanted Sakura to show her sensei that she had grown into a one-hell-of-a-beautiful woman; of course, Ino would never admit such a thing in the face of Sakura. Stopping in her tracks, she smirked knowingly at the choice of wear that caught her attention.

She disappeared into the shop and after quite some time, emerged with a handful of shopping bags. A young black-haired man stood at the door of the shop and waved at her with a smile. She winked at him and smiled back, knowing that her simple act, made the young man blush madly like a virgin. Oh yeah, she knew how she could make any man crawl and beg at her knees and she darn well loved it.

Another shop caught her attention and she hurried into it. Coming out one hour later with another bag yet it was a smaller one. Oh, how Sakura was going to like her new clothes or more like how the men were going to _love_ staring at the pink-haired woman. She couldn't wait to see the precious look on her friend's face when she saw those clothes.

She couldn't wait to let her see the new outfits so instead of walking, she hopped while humming pleasantly.

**...**

**Chapter VII – part two**

**Listening to: Skye Sweetnam - tangled up in me**

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"W-wait—S-Sa-kura….Dammit, ow-"

He felt his blood running cold and gulped nervously. Obviously, he had forgotten what a chakra-enhanced punch from her caused. His whole body would shudder in dread whenever he remembered what had happened to the ground when she and Naruto fought against him to get the bells.

He raised his hands in front of him in a protective manner and tried to reason with her, yet everything he said –or tried to say- fell on deaf ears. The monster was unleashed and it would take a miracle for someone to be able to stop it. He figured that it would be better to listen to whatever she had told him to do and started to make his way out of her room, all the while trying to avoid the flying sharp objects.

After finally stepping outside her bedroom, he managed to close the door with great difficulty as even when he was outside her room, she kept on throwing more stuff at him. Slamming the door shut, he heard a cracking voice from the other side and inwardly thanked God that he was not hit by the obviously made-of-glass object.

He sighed heavily and stepped away from the door. Heading towards a nearby chair to wait for her to at least put on some clothes and cover herself. He would admit that it was foolish of him to enter her room and wait for her there but he could honestly say that his curiosity got the best of him and he went into her room.

But what was even more foolish of him was the simple act of sneaking a look at her while she was in the bathroom. He hadn't meant to offend her and violate her privacy. Her soft voice was what led him into the room and eventually to her bathroom. He had to give credit to his keen hearing for it was difficult to catch the sound of her silky voice humming a melody he hadn't ever heard of.

Her beautiful body also glued him to the spot and made it absolutely impossible for his normal eye to stop staring at her, as a matter of a fact, his hand itched to remove his hitai-ate to reveal his sharingan for better vision but he didn't do it. He would never do it, because by doing that he would certainly be going so very far.

Even when she stepped out of the shower, he couldn't stop himself from watching her drying her body with the pure white towel. He saw her stop and look at herself in the mirror before a disapproving look smeared her pretty little face, and for the life of him, he didn't know why she was staring at herself in that way.

She was perfect in every sense. Her breasts even though small, they were perfect and looking-delicious and her hips were made for her body and did not look out of place like most of the women's bodies. Her curves were not too sharp but they were decent. He could swear that he felt himself hardening just by looking at her. Hell, his heart actually skipped a beat when he saw her rubbing her breasts with a sweet-scented lotion.

If it weren't for his strong sense of control, he would be afraid that he would actually jump her and take her right then and there on the bathroom tiles. Kakashi took a deep calming breath and shook his head violently to rid himself of the dirty thoughts plaguing his mind. Still, his attempts went in vain as the scene of her slowly massaging her other breast –the one he was able to see clearly- rushed to his mind.

He wouldn't deny that he wished that he was the one touching her so softly and carefully, making her experience pleasures she'd never even dreamt of feeling. And when he saw her bending with her back facing him, something in him snapped and he actually pushed the door open before he quickly pulled himself back together and retreated to the far corner of her bedroom; away from the bathroom and her naked body. He felt like she was taunting him and playing games with him but he knew better than that.

Little Innocent Sakura would never try to seduce or even try to do a thing under that category to her poor old sensei.

He already felt like a perverted old man for ogling her in her state of nudity, and he even felt more perverted for not feeling any type of guilt whatsoever. Either he was really losing it, or he was experiencing the effects of not having someone to sleep with for so long. It'd been five years, five long years since he had someone in bed. He figured that it was about time that he invited a young beautiful lady to his bed. And knowing the female population in Konoha, every one of them, married or single would want to have sex with him.

Oh yeah, he was confident about himself.

So tonight after the party would be a good chance to take someone, preferred to be single, mind you. The soft turning of the door knob brought Kakashi's attention back to reality. He was still holding his bleeding nose and trying to breathe through his mouth. He feared that she really had changed the shape of his nose.

The door was slammed open to reveal a furious pink-haired woman. She was wearing the regular shinobi pants she received when she became a Jounin with its regular top. She marched towards Kakashi with long strides and was soon standing in front of him, both hands planted firmly on her hips. Kakashi could tell that she was seething with anger and was trying her best not to beat him into a bloody pulp.

He was really starting to doubt his decision of coming there. Maybe it was a bad idea after all?

"Why are you here?" she hissed. Her voice alone caused a shiver to run down his spine but he hid it professionally and didn't allow it to show.

"I wath justh waiting for you to athk you thomthing," the silver-haired Jounin struggled to talk properly but soon found that it was pointless. Talking with your hand on your nose proved to be quite difficult for people to understand.

Sakura sighed heavily and gestured for Kakashi to go and sit on her couch. He eyed her suspiciously and didn't move from his place.

"Don't worry, I just want to fix your nose," she assured him before moving past him to sit on one side of the couch. She patted the empty spot next to her and waited for him to take a seat. Kakashi walked cautiously towards her and sat in the empty spot, trying to maintain as much space as possible. Sakura was known for her sudden mood swings, and even if he wasn't there to witness that for the past five years, he could relate.

"How am I supposed to heal you when you're sitting away from me?" She furrowed her eyebrows and waited for him to come closer. When he didn't move, she sighed for the umpteenth time that day and moved to sit next to him. "Don't worry, I won't bite," she giggled at her own joke.

"Vely funny," he tried to say.

She giggled a little bit more at his attempts to talk properly which only earned her a glare from the man sitting next to her.

"I'm sorry, it's just so funny," she said and wiped a tear from her right eye. "Now, let me see your nose," she said.

Kakashi slowly started moving away his hand, wincing a little in pain every once awhile. Sakura looked at him worriedly with knitted eyebrows. Maybe she had over-done it this time?

She hadn't meant to hit him that strong but when she saw him in her room, she couldn't control herself and when she threw her slipper at him, she enhanced her throw with her chakra. The moment her soft fingers touched the tip of his mask to tug it down, Kakashi's hand shot to stop her. He gave her a questioning look.

"You can heal it through the mask," he said coldly and Sakura couldn't help but oblige.

She had wanted to take another peek at his face but she was too shocked to argue with that; it wasn't every day that you broke the Copy-Ninja's nose and got an opportunity to look at his handsome face. It was a miracle that she was able to see his face the first time.

Her hands pressed softly against his broken nose earning her a low hiss from Kakashi. "Sorry," she apologized sincerely. Her hands started to slowly glow a bright color of green as her chakra seeped into the broken bone to fix the damage that was done by her.

Her healing-type chakra coursed through his chakra circulation system and slipped into his blood and the bone of his nose; mending the broken bone and repairing the ripped tissues and skin, all the while trying to stop the bleeding from continuing. She put on her last touches before pulling back her hands. She hadn't noticed the close proximity before and doubted that Kakashi had noticed it too. She blushed softly and quickly pulled back.

Her face had been merely inches away from his own and she had been practically sitting all over him just to take a closer look at his broken nose. She blamed it all on the mask. Yup, it was the entire blasted mask's fault. If he hadn't been wearing it, she wouldn't have had to come so close to him to fix his nose. That mask was nothing but trouble.

A heavy air of awkwardness surrounded them before Sakura cleared her throat nervously. "You still didn't tell me, what were you doing in my room?" She narrowed her eyes at him dangerously.

"I was looking for my blood tests. Tsunade told me that it's been sent to you by accident so she asked me to bring it," he told her as a matter of a fact.

"Oh, then sorry about your nose," she apologized awkwardly.

"It's ok." Kakashi gave her an eye-crease and Sakura could only imagine what his smile would be like under the mask.

"The blood tests are on the kitchen's table." She stood up and walked towards the said-table. She held the envelop that had the blood tests in. She turned back to him to find him standing not too far away from her.

"Well, don't tell me that you didn't see this envelop on the table." She held the said-item with one hand and moved it around in front of his face, a sly smile gracing her full pink lips.

Kakashi laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his head before reaching for the envelop. She pulled it back to her just in time to stop him from taking it, her smile growing more mischievous as the seconds ticked by.

He stared at her with mild interest as she inched closer to him. "I think that the Copy-Ninja is starting to grow a little bit rusty," she taunted, her voice was so low that any person would mistake her actions for something inappropriate.

"Oh, I believe that you're the one who's starting to get rusty, Sakura-chan," Kakashi taunted her back, the smirk evident in his voice. Sakura frowned a little but her smile did not falter and instead she moved a little bit closer, bringing her face closer to his that her hot breath tickled his cheeks.

"How so?" she whispered confidently.

"Look behind you."

The pink-haired woman heard another voice coming from behind her and before she could turn to see the person behind her, a pair of masculine arms wrapped around her waist, pinning her in her place. She swallowed a yelp of surprise before looking at her former-sensei quizzically.

He answered her with a mere shrug and a smirk of triumph.

"Why don't you take your words back, Sakura-chan?" the man behind her whispered into her ear, sending a jolt of electricity down her spine, she immediately recognized the person behind her and almost started laughing.

"Kakashi-sensei, you're a pervert," she said, her voice holding a hint of anger which warned Kakashi's clone of the danger he was facing. But he didn't pull back until he took the envelope from her hand.

Kakashi took the envelop from his clone before deactivating his Jutsu and causing the clone to disappear in a puff of smoke.

"See you later, Sakura-chan." He waved his hand before making a series of seals and disappearing in a puff of smoke as well.

Sakura stared at the spot he was occupying earlier and bit her lower lip. His arms felt so warm, so _right_ around her and for once after Sasuke's admission of not being able to love her back, she wanted someone to hold her like that. She felt so secure, so wanted and desired in his almost-embrace.

She wanted to slap herself mentally for thinking such perverted thoughts about her former-sensei but she couldn't bring herself to do it. It was all Kakashi's fault; he corrupted her and made her think those thoughts of him. But still….

She huffed in annoyance and retreated back to her room, she had to pick something decent to wear before Ino arrived. Sakura didn't want her blonde-friend to choose her outfit. God only knew what she would make her wear.

XXXX

"What the hell was I thinking?" Kakashi muttered under his breath. He sat on the head of the Yondaime which was carved deeply into the stones of the mountain. He took a deep breath and sat down on the hard surface of the stones.

His breathing was irregular and he had to calm himself by letting his eyes roam over the village underneath. The sight of Konoha always managed to help in calming him down and clearing his mind. He remembered always coming there every time when he was in the ANBU, especially when he needed some peace and quiet.

He knew by experience that going to the momentum stone in those times was a bad idea; as he would be able to hear the voices of his dead comrades reprimanding him and berating him for his stupid mistakes. And he was in absolute no need to be scolded now of all times. All he wanted was a quiet place to arrange his thoughts and maybe well in self-pity and loathing.

What the hell was he thinking when he played into her game? Obviously, Sakura was trying to provoke some reaction out of him and he just walked into her trap like an obedient dog. He cursed haughtily under his breath and closed his eyes for a moment.

It was all because of his stupid acts, or to put it more accurately, it was all because of his lame reply. Looking for the blood tests, yeah right, as if she would buy that not when they were right in front of him. Never mind him being in her bedroom ogling her like she was some kind of a piece of meat for sale. He brushed those thoughts away; he didn't have the time to dwell on them at the moment. They were in the bottom of his what-to-do list.

He took a deep breath, enjoying the cool air as it entered his lungs and filled him with a sense of content for the briefest of moments before letting it out again. He placed his hands behind him to support his weight as he looked up at the sky above him; it was nearing the sunset which meant nearing the so-called 'Welcoming Home' party.

He didn't see the use of it but he went with the flow of things like he always used to do, because arguing proved to be useless on more than one occasion, so why waste the breath? Sakura would be there too and for the first time, he didn't know how he would be able to face her after what he'd done.

Holding her like that in his arms, his hands around her waist pulling her closer to his chest and his mouth near her ear. He groaned mentally and almost wanted to slap himself in reality. Again, back to the point, what the hell was he thinking?

He stood up and jumped towards a near roof, landing ever-so-gracefully with the aid of his chakra to steady his feet. He started making his way towards Tsunade's office; better deliver the blood tests before she got angry at him. He didn't feel like being on the end line of her non-ending ranting about how late he was.

He noticed that the window to her office was open and took the privilege of entering through it. He hopped into the office to stand behind her chair. He cleared his throat and noticed how the blonde-woman yelped in surprise. She twirled around in her chair and fixed an angry glare at him.

"Doors were invented for something, you know," she told him angrily.

"I'm sorry Tsunade-sama." He bowed his head and pulled out the tests from one of the pockets of his olive-green vest. "Here are the blood tests you asked for." He handed her the said-papers.

"Thank you, Kakashi." She took the papers and placed them on her desk for her to see later. She had too much work on her hands right now. Besides, she was sure that Sakura had seen them already she was somewhat reassured by that fact.

"Now, if I may excuse myself."

Tsunade nodded in approval and turned back to her work. She was determined to finish everything before the party tonight. Kakashi turned to leave the Hokage and jumped through the window and landed on the ground. He smiled at the shocked guard and waved a hand in goodbye before he started walking towards his own apartment. Taking his leisure time to observe the shops and the people he passed.

XXXX

Sakura almost froze in her place when she heard the soft knocking on her door. She still hadn't chosen what she would be wearing for tonight's party. She didn't want Ino to choose for her what to wear because she knew by experience that whatever the blonde woman chose was bound to attract a group of men if not the whole population of Konoha, male and female.

She thought about ignoring the knocking but the soft knocking on the door soon changed to banging.

"Open up, Sakura! I know you're in there!"

Sakura sighed heavily and succumbed to her fate. She trudged towards her front door and opened it. "Hey, Ino-pig," she muttered.

"Hey forehead, look what I've brought you." Ino pushed Sakura out of the way and invited herself into the apartment. She quickly started making her way towards her friend's bedroom without another thought.

The pink-haired woman shook her head slightly and followed her enthusiastic friend into her bedroom. She watched as Ino rummaged through the bags she brought with her.

"Aha!" Ino exclaimed happily as she pulled out the pieces of clothes she was searching for and turned to her friend with a smirk on her full lips. Sakura noticed that Ino was wearing a beautiful dark blue sleeveless dress. The end of her dress reached to her thighs above her knees and Sakura noted that the front of the dress just barely hid Ino's full breasts.

Ino had her blond hair pulled up in a bun leaving a few blonde curly strands to frame her face. She was wearing a pair of high-heels which was painted in a lighter shade of blue with a brush of sparkles causing it to shine elegantly.

Sakura felt a bead of sweat roll down her right cheek as she noted wryly the mischievous glint in Ino's pale-blue eyes and the sly smile on her lips. She swallowed nervously and approached her friend to look at the pieces of clothes she had in her hands.

Ino pushed the pink-haired woman into the bathroom and gave her the pieces of clothes. "Try this on, Forehead," she instructed. Sakura could only comply as she knew that there's no stopping it when Ino started choosing clothes.

Looking at the black articles in her hands, Sakura looked at them and studied the dress and the undergarments with a skeptical look. They were tiny. That was her first reaction. There was no way in hell they could actually fit her, but she knew that she had to at least try it on for the sake of her best friend if not for herself.

"There's no way I'm going to wear these undergarments, Ino-Pig!" Sakura shouted as she looked at the lacy materials with a look of disgust. No one would be getting into her bed tonight and neither was she going to be in anyone's bed, so why bother with those?

"Shut up, Forehead and do as I say!" Came Ino's sharp reply with a loud bang on the bathroom's door.

Her shoulders fell in defeat as she stripped off her clothes and pushed them to a far corner in her bathroom before slipping on the black lacy panties. She left the bra and didn't wear it.

She looked at herself in the mirror and noticed that they actually looked quite nice on her, now if only she could put on the bra, she would look perfect. But since the dress revealed the valley of her breasts, she knew that she couldn't wear one, or else it would be visible to everyone. Next, she slipped on the black night dress carefully.

Sakura was amazed that it actually fit her perfectly but at the same time she was slightly annoyed by the way it hugged her body, showing every curve of it and framing her waist perfectly. She felt like she was naked even though she was wearing that dress.

The dress reached till her ankles making her legs look unbelievably long. The cut reached just barely under her thigh and above her knees. Sakura felt that it was a bit too much but she knew that it was futile to argue with Ino because once she put her mind into something; that something had to be done. The front of the dress was also revealing. The V neck made the valley of her breasts visible for the eye to see while her back was left bare.

She looked at herself in the mirror inspecting the dress before sighing in defeat and opening the door to step out of the bathroom. "How do I look?" she asked.

"Oh my God, you look absolutely gorgeous!" Ino exclaimed in delight as she went to pull her friend into a strong hug. Sakura laughed nervously and thanked the blonde woman before pulling away.

"Isn't a bit too revealing?" she asked a little bit unsure.

"Nonsense!" Ino waved her hand in front of her as she went back to the bags she had thrown on the bed earlier. She pulled out a pair of black high heels with sprinkles of silver adorning the front of it. She handed the pair to Sakura and ordered her to try it on.

Sakura did as she was told and put them on. She had a little difficulty in adjusting to the new height and was about to fall on her face on more than one occasion until she got the hang of it or so she said.

After that, Ino forced Sakura to sit on the bed as she pulled out her make-up set. With a brush, Ino applied a light blush on Sakura's cheeks. She pulled out her red lip gloss and applied it to Sakura's lips before telling her friend to put on some mascara and kohl, and again Sakura did as she was told.

Sometimes, Sakura wondered what she'd ever do without Ino.

After finishing with her make-up, she went to her dresser to pull out her favorite necklace and accompanying earrings. They were gifts from Naruto, as she remembered that after every long mission he brought her something new. And those two, were gifts from the long missions.

The earrings were black butterflies with pink gems adorning them while the necklace was one big black sparkling butterfly with beautiful pink diamonds of different shades. She treasured them and kept them always in her most hidden place.

Ino saw her friend putting on the familiar jewelry and smiled softly, before she ushered her to hurry it up or they would be late. Before leaving the apartment, Ino handed Sakura a similar black purse and pushed her towards the front door, locking the door behind her.

XXXX

The pub was crowded and the scent of sake mingling with sweat wafted through the air making the two young women twitch their noses in dislike. However, the moment they stepped foot into the pub, everyone grew silent as they stared at the two beauties walking confidently –or trying to look confident in Sakura's case.

The men whistled while the women grumbled in distaste. Sakura's cheeks grew a dark shade of red while Ino looked around her with a smug look on her face. The blonde beauty left her friend's side and sauntered towards the bar's stool, all the while, men and women moving out of her way.

She picked a seat and sat herself gently on it, crossing her legs one on the other, she let her eyes take in every man in the pub, winking at few selected ones. Few moments later, almost every guy was trying to get her attention. Ino smirked at Sakura's bewildered expression and enjoyed the attention she was getting.

Sakura shifted uncomfortably on her high-heels and bit her lower lip out of nothing to do. She hugged her purse closer to her chest and searched through the crowds of hungry men for familiar faces.

There, at the darkest corner of the crowded room, sat the familiar figure of her former sensei. She noted that he was also looking at her but with an unidentified glint in his lone eye.

...

To be continued…

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**How was it? Good, bad? I'm waiting to know. Your opinions always make me smile. Tell me if I messed up in some parts, 'k?**

**~KWF~**

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.


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